Teen Titans: Civil War
by An Above Average Author
Summary: There comes a time when you're given a choice to do what is right, but your teammate standing next to you might have a different definition of right. Are you willing to fight for your definition? Yes, this is indeed the new Civil War movie Titans style, read to find out whose on which side. I don't own Teen Titans or Civil War.
1. Chapter 1

Jump City is known for many things. A sub average football team that always just seems to miss the playoffs; a burger joint named Mega Meaty Meat that ended up being a front for an alien invasion; a beach so beautiful it's one of the most popular vacation spots in the U.S.; and of course, its resident team of teen superheroes known as the Teen Titans. What it's not known for is classic art, and that is why the newly elected mayor decided his first project would be to open a new museum dedicated to the one thing it was so sorely missing. On opening day crowds flooded the gallery. Like all buildings dedicated to the finer things in life, the interior was limited to a completely white color scheme with a pillar here and there to hold up the high vaulted ceiling. Unfortunately, this design also amplifies all sound to an incredible extent, which usually doesn't come into play in such art galleries, but today was different. Today was opening day, and everyone and their mother decided to show up, which resulted in a complete cacophony of noise. Even with such noise, one complaint could be heard above all uproar.

"Eeeuuuuugggghhh! Why do we even hafta' be here?"

"Beast Boy! Keep it down! We're out in public, and we should always be modeling good behavior. These people, especially the young ones, look up to us." the team leader quickly chided.

"I just don't get why we're here! It's just a bunch of dusty, old paintings."

"These aren't just dusty, old paintings, Beast Boy. They're priceless pieces of history that artists use to convey their inner emotions." replied the team's dark sorceress and empath.

"Well duh, but why do we even care about them? What people should really care about is what those turtles did before they painted all this stuff! You know: fight crime, take down Shredder, and they were even trained by a rat!"

"Wait, hold up there Green Bean! Are you talkin' about the TMNT? You know they were named after all these artists right? They didn't do the paintin' themselves! Everyone born on planet earth knows that!" the team's engineer and general go to guy for all thing electronic got out between bouts of laughter.

The team's animal shape shifter quickly turned red and began to shoot back a retort, but before he could respond he was cut off by an extremely outgoing alien also residing on the team. "Fear not friend! I also did not know that this 'Leonardo' and his fellow friends did not fight crime!"

"Yah see Cy! Star didn't know too!" Beast Boy eventually shot back.

"Uh-huh, but last time I checked, the girl wasn't born here on planet earth." Cyborg rebounded, and once finishing couldn't help but break down into hysterical laughter.

Starfire, also finding the situation humorous, joined Cyborg in laughter. Robin, seeing the girl he'd been smitten by from the moment she planted a big one on his lips react so joyfully, also couldn't help himself and joined in, but on a much more reserved level. Even Raven watched with a genuine smile on her face and a slight chuckle escaping her mouth (but she would deny ever doing so). This left the green changeling standing there with his arms crossed trying to fume angrily at his friends, but nowhere near as intimidating as Raven at doing so. As his friends continued to laugh, his furrowed brow relaxed and the corners of his mouth began to lift and soon, he too joined his friends in laughter.

This beautiful moment might have lasted forever, but instead was soon ended by a piercing scream. The Titans quickly discerned what direction from which it came and rushed off to find the cause of such a scream. Once reaching they're destination they came upon a disturbing sight completely surrounded by a stunned and slowly coming to crowd. In the middle of the crowd stood Control Freak with his remote pointed at what was formally a man but now, just a head and a pair of arms and legs on the ground, completely devoid of any torso.

[5 minutes ago]

"Disgusting! They call this art? This isn't art! Art is _Watchmen._ That comic was a piece of art! Back in 1986 comics were at their very best, at the top of their game. That storyline was completely perfect! Action, romance, humor… Well maybe not humor, it was pretty dark, but that's beside the point! And the illustrations! So well drawn… well maybe not Doctor Manhattan being naked the whole time, but beyond that: flawless! Not this dusty, old painting hanging on the wall here. Am I right?" The random appreciator of art just stared silently back at Control Freak, and slowly began to back away from him. After a few steps it turned into a fast walk, but that just made the world's nerdiest villain even angrier.

"Oh, so your gonna run away from me? I'll give you a reason to run away from me." He said under his breath as he reached for his modded remote in his jacket pocket. He pointed it directly at the mans chest and began to pull the trigger (or I guess press the button), but before he could commit, another man jostled into him. He turned against the man who'd just messed up a perfectly good opportunity for revenge, ready to yell at him and let him know who he just bumped into (Control Freak! Master of-ah you get it), but before he could say a word he noticed the man's attire. He wore thick pants and a heavy jacket despite the warm weather. Next Control Freak noticed the man's vest, it was oddly bulgy and had lights flashing hear and there. Confused by why someone would wear such an ugly vest, he looked closer. He noticed the bulges were in perfect rows around the whole vest and that each bulge had a flashing light and wires on each one. Realizing that the vest wasn't a fashion statement, but something of a much deadlier origin, he looked the suicide bomber in the eyes.

Time seemed to freeze as he began thinking about of his life. _Ok, so I might be a bad guy, but I'm not THAT level of bad guy. Sure, I steal, but I'm not a murder… Or a mass murder in this case. What do I do? Do I just say I saw nothing and walk away? Would I make it out of the building before he decides to light this place up light a Christmas tree? Probably not. Do I yell that this guys got a bomb so security can take care of him? He'd detonate it right there before they could do anything. Can I do something about the bomb right now? Maybe… Maybe I can zap the vest off of him and send it into some t.v. That way he'd have no chance of blowing us all sky high. That sounds… like it could work._

The next moment Control Freak chose not to be a villain, but be a hero. He pointed his remote at the man's vest and pressed a button hoping to send the bomb off somewhere it couldn't hurt people. Instead the man's entire torso disappeared and the various limbs fell to the ground. That's when the lady next to him saw the bodiless limbs and screamed.

[End Chapter]

What'd you think? Did I pique you're interest? Let me know. If it was awful, sure let me know about that too. I can't improve from just hearing, "Nice job!" If you do think it was bad, tell me why and I'll take it into account and try to improve in that area in the next chapter. Why I randomly wrote this? Well thanks for asking, I went looking for a Civil War parody for Teen Titans and not finding one, decided to add one myself. This is my first try at one of these, always wanted to write a book, so why not start here. This one's a little shorter than the upcoming chapters because I wanted to test the waters first and leave a nice cliff hanger. I'm gonna try to update weekly, but no promises. Oh! and I don't own Watchmen or the TMNT as well! Anyway, thanks for reading and hopefully Chapter One was Above Average in your book!

One last thing! Any idea's of whose on what side? Or what might cause such a division in the Titans? (Hint: that was what this chapter was) I'd like to know who you think would be on each side. Don't fear to talk about Titans East and all Honorary Titans as well; I sure won't be. And if you noticed I didn't put any main characters, that was purposeful. I'm going to try to talk about all of them... a lot. Honestly couldn't decide which of the five Titans to leave out.


	2. Chapter 2

The Titans couldn't believe their eyes. Did Control Freak just murder someone? The Titans stared down their enemy, but both sides were too stunned to move. Robin was the first to snap out of it and confronted the evil-doer shouting, "Control Freak! Your under arrest!" No puns, no one liner, this seemed too real for such things.

Control turned around slowly shaking his head to take him out of the shell shocked state he was in and sullenly responded "Under arrest? I just saved you and a whole lot of people lives just now! In fact, I-" but he was suddenly cut off by Robin's fist hitting him in the mouth, and everything went black.

The crowd was just beginning to respond. Maybe it was the absurdity of the situation that made everyone pause. It isn't every day that they witness a man's torso disappear. Maybe it was the lack of blood flowing from the pieces of man that were on the ground. Somehow, however the remote works, it made clean cuts that left no blood flowing from the ends. Maybe it was the fact that the man passed so wordlessly into the afterlife, but now, the crowds finally began to realize they just witnessed a murder, and began to panic. There were shouts here and there, and everyone began running towards a way out of the nightmarish building. The Titans usually would be right on top of things, and would make sure that the crowd left in an orderly way to avoid unnecessary injury. Today they saw something they'd never witnessed before.

As the crowd began to disperse, the entire team just stood still, staring at the remains of an unknown civilian. Robin was the first to bring himself out of his stupor, and he slowly turned to look at his team. It was moments like these that Robin cursed his training under Batman as he looked back at his team after silencing the geek turned evil-doer. The endless hours of training that forced him to see every clue now made him taken every detail, subconsciously branding them into his head that he won't soon be forgetting.

He looked at Starfire. Her bright features no longer shining. Her little eyebrows that he'd so fallen in lov-appreciates, he appreciates them, and they now hang low on her face instead of their usual, much higher, spot. They would almost always be held high in awe or wonder as she took in her surroundings, always finding the most beautiful things in life. Her posture had drooped significantly: shoulders rolled forward, head slightly lowered, and her arms wrapped around her thin frame. It was all so far from her usual upright position that was instilled into her after years of living as Tamaranean royalty.

He shifted his view to Beast Boy standing next to the alien princess. Robin first noticed his ears droop, and then his nose wrinkle in disgust. Beast Boy watched his fair share of violence in movies and played a large amount of violent video games (he was a teenager, and we all do), but there's a big difference when it's on a screen verses when it's lying on the ground in front of you. He saw him turn his gaze away from the sight and begin watching the crowd instead, as they were fleeing the building, but not before casting a quick glance at Raven. Robin couldn't blame him for being so sickened by the sight. He new the shape shifter was heavily affected because even with his friend already completely green, Robin could still see the slight shift to a slightly more intense green when he looked at the mangled body in front of him.

Next to him stood Raven, with her entire body completely concealed except the bottom half of her face. Even with her covering and extensive practice in keeping any sign of emotion off her face, Robin could still see pain in her eyes. They were squinting slightly, showing obvious distraught, intense concentration, or a combination of both in the girl that was suppose to show no emotion. Along with her creased eyes, Robin noted her jaw was flexed, meaning she was clenching her teeth rather intensely as well. Instead of looking away she surprised Robin (which is quite a difficult thing to do) and she instead chose to close her eyes and pull her hood further over her head.

Moving next to Cyborg, he was filled with some much needed hope. After a brief shake of the head to snap himself out of his funk, he put one hand on Beast Boy's shoulder and the other on Raven's. They both leaned into his touch, and Raven went the extra step and placed her hand over his. He turned and softly called out to Starfire, who looked up at him and after a small smile, walked up and laid her head upon his shoulder. There were a lot of memories that Robin wished he could forget, but this specific snapshot of his team consoling each other, that was a memory that Robin did not regret having.

At that moment, the police spilled into the building, quickly putting the unconscious Control Freak in handcuffs. Robin stepped forward and joined his team placing his hand on Starfire's back. Noticing his touch, she transferred her head off Cyborg and laid it softly against the side of Robin's head. On the other side of Cyborg, Beast Boy noticed a cop step past them holding a bag and said to the rest of the team, "Does that cop hafta' pick up the rest of that guy with that bag? I'm not complaining about chores for the rest of my life." With the team so worn out from the prior events, they could only smile softly back at him, but Beast Boy appreciated it just the same. Especially Raven's, in which he mentally noted that that was the third time he'd made her smile this month, thirty-seventh over-all. The team slowly made their way out of the building and away from the terrible things they saw.

Half an hour later, Control Freak woke up in a cell across from the Titan's talking to the police, giving them a run down of the situation they just witnessed back at the art museum. Shaking off the grogginess of being out cold and rotating his sore chin, he tried to take in his surroundings. Seeing that he was behind bars, he realized the full extent of his current predicament and quickly jumped towards the bars causing a loud clang and gaining everyone's attention by his sudden and loud movement. "Hold on everyone! Why am I in here! I should be given a medal for what I just did!" he shouted at a volume much louder than necessary.

The team stared back at him in confusion until, surprisingly, Raven was the first to respond in a voice as cold as ice, "You're here for one count of senseless murder, how in anyway could that be deserving a medal."

"Murder? It's not murder if it's self defense! I know my rights!" Control freak responded in an almost shocked voice.

"Self-Defense? Correcting some helpless bystander about some old comic, or whatever he did to piss you off, doesn't count as self-defense!" Shot back an outraged Cyborg.

" _Watchmen_ is not some old comic! It's a timeless pi- wait no! I wasn't talking to him about that! I didn't kill that guy because... of that…" Control Freak started, but ended quietly because he realized what he just said really wasn't helping his side of the story. Control Freak sat in silence and looked up at the Titan's steady glare that only worsened after his attempt at explaining his innocence. Control Freak paused to gather his thoughts and began again in a shaky voice, "I didn't kill him over that. The guy had a bomb on him and I tried to zap the bomb off him to save everyone. I-"

"Shut up! This isn't some action movie! No one can actually believe that you were somehow being the hero! It's insane!" Robin cut him off.

"No! I-I'm telling the truth! He h-had a b-bomb!" Control Freak tried to continue, but he was beginning to break down in tears. "He had a bomb! I'm t-telling the t-t-truth!" He slumped forward against the bars of his cell, slowly sliding towards the ground. "Y-you guys have to b-believe m-me. Y-you're the good g-guys. Y-you always do the r-right thing."

They all stared back with cold eyes and cold hearts. Robin turned to the police commissioner and said, "I believe you have everything you need." and as one, the Titans turned to leave. Control Freak only bowed his head and let the tears come. As all the Titan's exited the door, Beast Boy paused and took one glance back just whispering, "Dude, I thought you weren't evil like that." He then joined his team and left the building to head back to the tower.

The drive back was completely silent. No jokes were cracked by Beast Boy. No witty comebacks from Raven. No shouts of joy and comradery from Starfire. No loud orders barked by Robin. No victorious shouts of "Booyah" from Cyborg. Silence. The sun was just beginning to set when they finally reached the tower, and it was unanimously, yet wordlessly, voted that everyone was going to bed early. To each their own room they went, thinking of all that unfolded that day. They wondered how such a petty criminal became so vicious. How had Control Freak fallen to such a low? Such thoughts plagued every member of the team, and kept them from reaching restful slumber.

The next day Robin awoke first as he always did, but with much less energy than usual. Just as he begun to make coffee, which before now, was only used as a last resort for late night searches when he was hot on the trail of a villain, he heard the door to the main room open. Turning around, he responded with a slight surprise in his voice, "You're up early Beast Boy."

"Nah, I'm up late… really late." Beast Boy corrected.

Robin arched his brow in confusion at first but soon realized what his green friend was saying and responded, "Ah, didn't sleep at all last night did you?" Beast Boy sat down at the table just as Robin finished his question, and nodded before letting his head fall forward and hit the table with a soft thud. Moving closer, Robin placed his hand on his shoulder, but before he could give any words of comfort the door opened up yet again. Both Starfire and Raven walked out of the door, one right after the other.

Answering the question that wasn't asked, Raven said, "We woke up at around the same time, and ran into each other on the way down." With that, the two girls joined the boys at the table and the two girls and Robing joined beast Boy sitting at the table.

"You two didn't sleep well either then?" Robin asked the girls. They both responded with slight shakes of the head.

"At least you guys got some sleep." Beast Boy said with his voice muffled from his head being pressed against the table and then added, "I wonder if Cyborg couldn't sleep too?" In response, the door opened yet again and out walked the half machine saying, "Man you guys too? I couldn't sleep and that's saying something, considering I don't even technically sleep any way."

Raven sat pondering his last statement trying to figure out how the Titan slept until her eyes narrowed in confusion and she finally turned and looked at him quizzically asking, "How do you sleep? Isn't it more like recharging?"

"Yah, usually I plug myself in and just blackout until I wake up at a preset time, but last night I was somehow still conscious. I don't even know how to describe it to you guys. Nothing like this has ever happened before, but then again, a seemingly harmless villain hasn't up and murdered someone before."

After Cyborg voiced the reason of everyone's lack of sleep, no one had anything else to add. They sat in an uncomfortable silence until the resident alien broke it.

"Friends, I am most distraught. Control Freak has never done something like that before, why would he do so now?"

"Sometimes people just snap, Star, and there's really no explaining it." Robin said trying to console her. He looked at her hand stretched out on the table and thought to place his hand over hers, but decided against it due to the fact that it might bring later teasing from the other resident males on the team.

"But did we not exclude him on our list of evil-doers when our friends, Titans East, came to protect Jump City for us?"

Raven spoke up this time and tried to respond in her classic monotone, but it came out less confidently than usual, "Even then, he came and almost killed Titans East during a handful of sick games." And after a short pause finished at a quieter level, "Maybe we should have taken him seriously after that."

"I'm with Star on this one" Beast boy said, finally raising his head from the table, "He'd always make things a game with us, and shout his whole, 'It is I, Control Freak' deal. Just killin' a guy like that without a show doesn't seem like somethin' he'd do."

"Well I hate to break it to you two, but he obviously did change and is now okay with killing people." Robin said.

Both Starfire and Beast Boy looked at Robin in his mask covered eyes and responded at the exact same time asking, "Did he?"

Raven looked at the pair incredulously and asked, "Wait, you two aren't believing his story right? It's way too far-fetched to actually be true."

Starfire decided to speak first, "He does not seem to be someone who would kill so easily, I am thinking that his story may be true." And Beast Boy nodded in agreement adding "Dude, did you see how freaked out he was when he tried telling us his side of the story?"

"Well yah, but the guy watches so much t.v. he's bound to pick up some acting skills from it." Robin replied and looked towards Cyborg adding "What do you think Cyborg?"

"Look man, I'm not here to pick sides. I'm just gonna wait till the hearing before I start saying why he killed a guy."

There wasn't much more to add with Cyborg refraining from giving an opinion, forcing a stalemate. The conversation ended, and the Titans got on with their day, or at least they attempted to. Robin decided that since they were all up, and in need of a distraction, that an early morning training session was due. Surprisingly, there were no complaints and everybody got up to get ready. They went up to their rooms so they would be able to change into clothes better fit for a workout.

On the way up, Raven walked up next to Beast Boy, "Are you sure you're thinking straight? You did just pull an all-nighter. You don't really think that his story was true?"

"Why can't it?" was all Beast Boy responded with, barely looking at Raven as he talked.

"Because that's a completely outrageous story. Only someone like Control Freak would come up with something stupid like that."

The two reached his door and he opened it, but before entering it, he paused and turned around saying, "Just cuz it's stupid doesn't mean it isn't true." and disappeared into his room.

Now standing alone, Raven scoffed at the idea, and just added it on to Beast Boy's list of outrageous ideas right next to gorilla warfare with trained gerbils and Red X being a robot monkey clone of Robin. She turned and went to her room to prepare for the early morning training session as well.

Five minutes later everyone was in the gym, and Robin began to explain what was on the agenda for today. "Since I think we need to blow off some steam we're all going to stick with weight lifting for the entire session."

Again, there was no complaint from his team from something that should have gotten at least an exasperated sigh from someone, most probably Beast Boy. Starfire and Cyborg both headed to the only machine that could test their super human strength, and the other three went to the normal weight racks and quietly began lifting. For the entire two-hour session, the only words exchanged were those asking if a machine was in use, warning someone they were coming behind them, and when Beast Boy dropped a weight on his foot. After the two hours were up, the heavily breathing team headed back up to the kitchen to get something to drink and maybe some food as well. Robin decided to head over to his laptop first to check if there were any knew updates. He saw that there was a message from the police and he opened it. After reading it, he quickly went back to his team to give them the news.

He walked in just passing the the threshold of the main room and saw his team eating a small breakfast, and decided to watch for a while as he leaned against the door frame. He watched as a typical Titan's breakfast unfolded. Beast Boy commented upon the disgusting amount of meat on Cyborg's plate. Cyborg of course commented upon it's amazing taste and scorned Beast Boy for living out a meatless life. Starfire laughed softly behind a hand placed over her smiling mouth, and Raven only responded with a roll of her eyes at the two exchanging insults. Hating to derail a perfectly happy moment, the first in over a day, but knowing the team would rather know the information, he stepped away from the door frame that supported his weight. As he approached the table, the Titans quieted down and gave Robin their full attention.

Knowing not how to segue into the information in which he now had, he just decided to jump right in, "They've identified the body as James McKinney son of Mary and John McKinney. They ran fingerprints and had his parents came in early this morning to identify him." Seeing smiles slowly vanish from his fellow teammates, he really began to debate whether they needed to know the other half of information he had during the silence that stood as his teammates processed what he just told them. Deciding it was something he shouldn't keep from them, he bit his lip lightly before saying, "Also" but again paused to give his team time to look at him again "Control Freak has asked to see us again."

[End Chapter]

Hello again! Are you enjoying it so far? Let me know, I'm curious and I always want to find ways to improve. I was surprised how fast I got this one done, so I might change from a weekly update to however fast I can get these out. I want to thank Dysfunctional-Nom-De-Plume, JP-Ryder, KOTG, and whoever you are guest (you're probably an amazing human being though) for your thoughts! You made me really think about who should be on which side. Also thanks to you, my new favorite human, that favorited my story! Hope you're liking how the situation is evolving as the sides might be becoming a little clearer now, and with any luck, I also hope chapter 2 is Above Average in your book!


	3. Chapter 3

"Must we?" Starfire's voice broke the silence, "I do not wish to see him right now. I believe it will only cause more fighting among us."

Mulling over the alien girls words Robin responded, "If he asked to see us, I think it would be good to hear him out. It's the right thing to do, no matter how much we don't want to hear what he has to say."

Starfire sighed and looked her leader knowing he was right and responded with, "Yes, that seems to be the correct choice."

"I'll drive then" Cyborg volunteered, but when he started walking to the T-Car, no one walked with him. Everyone still stood where they were. "What?"

"Umm, dude we all just worked out. Shouldn't we shower or something first? And change into our normal outfits?" Beastboy spoke up.

"Actually, I think that's one of the best ideas you've had in a while BB." Responded Cyborg in a cheery tone. Everyone else was in agreement and they all made themselves presentable before they all piled into the T-Car. The mood had greatly improved since their last ride together and they were all engaging in small talk.

"So whatcha' think he wants to talk about?" Beast Boy asked to no one in particular.

"He's probably going to try to sell us his bomber story again, but he's not going to have much luck." Said Raven in a matter of fact tone.

Robin joined in agreement, "What else would he say to us? Does he actually think he's going to sell us that story?"

"Why do you both dismiss this idea so quickly? Is it not still possible?" Starfire asked with a curious look on her face.

"Because Star, he's a bad guy. Just because it's possible, doesn't mean it happened. He's freaking out because he got caught and is going to face a very long sentence. Now, he's trying some crazy story to get himself out." Robin answered.

"Man, you guys are just saying the same thing this morning. Isn't there anything else you guys wanna talk about?" Cyborg interjected trying to keep the peace.

"We can talk about the nutritional benefits of tofu!"

Not surprisingly, Beast Boy got a resounding no from the rest of the team and they rode the rest of the way ragging on tofu instead. Well, all but one. Now united on common ground against a common enemy the team's overall mood began to improve. By the time they neared the police station, smiles again adorned their faces, well all except Beast Boy who had his one true love and staple food verbally torn apart for the past fifteen minutes. Starfire at one point tried to defend the ghastly food, but the other's discredited it, due to the resident alien's other choices of food. Eventually, he too brightened because he was with his cheerful friends. They arrived and all piled out of the car and into the building. Robin stepped up to the front desk to announce their arrival and their intent to speak to Control Freak and once doing so, returned to the rest of his team. While in the waiting area they all began to notice an older man holding a woman who was crying hard, but as quietly as she could into his chest.

The woman was whispering in between sobs, "Why? He was our boy. Why? He didn't deserve to die like that. Why? He was such a good boy and he had everything going for him. Why? Why? Why?" the realization hit the titans that they were parents of the man killed by Control freak, and they were all sickened. Yet again, smiles began to fade the longer they stayed in the same room as the devastated couple. A police man finally came and took them back to see Control Freak the same time another went to talk to the couple consoling each other. Right after the Titans passed through the door and it closed behind them he addressed the morning couple "Mr. and Mrs. Winchester…"

When the Titans made it back to Control Freak, they were already on edge from seeing the couple outside and not in the most stable of moods. Control Freak began once they came into view.

"Oh thank God you're hear! None of these cops believe me! They all think I killed that guy in cold blood, but you guys know I didn't right?"

Robin taking it upon himself as the leader to respond first, "Uh-huh, and what evidence do you have that supports your claim?"

Shocked that he was able to get down to business so quickly he had to stop and think about an answer before responding, "Well, if I had my remote I'd just bring back the explosive vest that I sent away, and if that doesn't prove my innocence, I don't know what will."

This time, the empath responded, "And just where did you send this 'explosive vest?'"

Raising a pointed finger and opening his mouth to respond he faltered and thought _Where did I send it?_ Before closing his mouth and letting his finger drop back down. "I have no idea." Was all the response he had.

"Oh? Well that seems awfully convenient for your story, Control Freak. Doesn't it?" Raven followed up with bitter sarcasm.

"Oh come on! I didn't have much time to think of a good destination for it! Hell, I didn't have any time to make any kinda calculations on it, cuz I ended up taking the guy's entire torso with it! It was such a stressful situation I'm surprised I was able to do what I did!"

Seeking to bring the escalating situation back down, Starfire asked, "What if we were able to return your remote to you? Would you then be able to show us where the explosive vest is?"

Control Freak snorted before responding, "Not likely. A Storm Trooper has a higher chance of hitting a running Jedi 100 yards away with only a DH-17 blaster pistol than me finding that vest again."

Only Beast Boy responded with an understanding yet sullen, "Oh." To which his team all looked to him for an interpretation. "Pretty much a zero percent chance." He told his team with a shrug.

With the team now looking back at at Control Freak, he continued, "I'd have no idea which t.v. I beamed it into, so I would have to go to every single t.v. within a two-mile radius around the art museum and check each channel individually until I came back across the vest. And even if I found the correct channel there's no guarantee it would still be there. Maybe it was beamed into the Discovery channel during a special on the Marianas Trench, or the Sci-Fy channel with a movie about exploring deep space." Realizing that finding this vest was his only get out of jail free card his eyes widened and quickly added, "But that doesn't mean I'm not not willing to try."

Before the Titans could muster a response, they were distracted by a breaking news flash on a t.v. in a nearby guard station. The newscaster began, "The newly elected mayor has news of the bill he'd recently brought to the Jump City courts earlier this week. He is now just seconds away from telling the public about this bill in a press conference he's called. Let's now go to it live." With that, they cut to the mayor standing on a podium clearing his throat and straightening the papers in his hands, and he begins talking, "People of Jump City, this great city is a beautiful place. When I was first elected I saw my job was cut out for me, because it's a mayor's job to improve the city he resides in, and Jump city looked pretty perfect to me." He paused to let the soft laughter fade before continuing again, "I noticed that we all could use a little help in the fine art department, and gladly obliged to start a new project of building a new museum dedicated to that very thing. I thought this was a strong first step in the right direction, but it quickly became a step backwards when one man decided to ruin all we worked hard at building. That man was the masked villain that goes by the name of Control Freak." Upon finishing his statement, the Titans looked back at the culprit mentioned, but he only shrugged with a nervous grin on his face. "Now, my people of Jump City, if there is one thing that is wrong about this fine city it is the amount of masked villains running free in the streets. It is clearly evident that it is becoming a larger and larger problem to this city, perfectly showcased by this 'Control Freak' lowering his moral standards to a level now accepting cold blooded murder. That is why I told this city's court system that we needed to tighten the noose, literally and figuratively, on costumed villains, and that, my fellow residents of Jump City, is why I am addressing you today. In my hands I am holding my newly passed bill reinstating capital punishment in Jump City for all repeating offenders that wear a costume, starting with Control Freak."

The sound of applause filled the speakers, and the Titans turned around to face Control Freak, but before anyone could address the new situation, Beast Boy asked, "Capital punishment? Does that mean we're shippin' Control Freak here up to Capital City, or is it just punishment with a capital 'P?'"

Cyborg responded, "You could say it's punishment with a capital 'P.' It's the death penalty bro."

Beast Boy's widened eyes were his only response, and once again everyone looked at Control Freak, "They're… They're gonna kill me. Over something I didn't do. You guys need to help me! Now, more than ever!"

Silence filled the room as nobody wanted to be the first to speak. Both Starfire and Robin thought no one was going to reply and at the same time spoke, "Yes, of course we will help." And "Cut the crap, Control Freak." Hearing the two speak very different things at almost the same exact time, Beast boy looked at Robin while Raven looked at Starfire and they both said, "Why did you say that?" Then Cyborg seeing exactly where this was going, put a hand up to his head and said, "Not again."

In the beginning they were all calmly explaining why they said what they said, though it may have been chaotic with them talking over each other. They tried to be logical, and sway their fellow teammates to see their view.

"Do you see his reaction? It is clear that he is not misleading us."

"The dude on the t.v. sounded like he meant business."

"There's a saying, 'Once a criminal, always a criminal.'"

"Without any evidence, there's really nothing to debate."

"You're basing everything on the word of a criminal."

"He didn't really put up a fight when we went to capture him though."

"Jinx was at one time a criminal, now she's helpin' put Kid Flash."

Talking quickly became yelling, and logic began to disappear. Sharp tones became prominent as they started to loose patience with each other.

"He's playing us, isn't it obvious?"

"How could you be so cold?"

"I thought you were smarter than this!"

"It is wrongful to sentence him!"

"It's 'wrongful' to let him go!"

"We're the good guys remember?"

"He needs to go to jail!"

"We all need to calm down!"

The yelling became fierce. Logic was thrown out the window and the only words screamed were those meant to injure. They were after all superheroes, and superheroes never know when to give up.

"Dude!"

"Boy Blunder!"

"Klorebag!"

"Witch!"

"Little, green elf!"

"Robot!"

"Troq!"

Everyone became dead silent instantly. Robin quickly put a hand over his mouth as Starfire just stared at him. A tear fell from her cheek as she quickly turned around and left. The others watched Robin, unaware he would be willing to stoop to a level like that.

"Dude, that was a low blow."

Robin glared at Beast Boy and shoved past him. Robin was the second to quickly leave the building. The last three looked at each other before Cyborg spoke up "So I guess I'm driving you to back?" The two looked at each other and Raven said, "I'll fly." And Beast Boy agreed, "Me too."

They both left leaving Cyborg the last Titan, now alone with Control Freak and he just stared at at Cyborg in shock. After a while he just quietly mumbled, "What just happened? Did I do that to you guys." Cyborg looked back and bitterly said, "Don't be flattered." before leaving Control Freak by himself. Control Freak looked at the ground and said barely above a whisper, "Believe me, I'm not."

Cyborg climbed back into the T-Car after walking out of the police station. The whole ride to the tower he thought about what happened to the team. Two days ago everything was going perfectly. Robin hadn't spent more than an hour a day in the evidence room for months. There were days in the past when he'd stay in there for over eight. If he remembered correctly (and he always did) Robin's record was twelve hours thirty-three minutes and seventeen seconds.

 _Ha would have gone longer if Star hadn't coaxed him out with promises of a movie night._ He chuckled as he remembered when he and Beast Boy started betting on how long he would stay. Cyborg was the winner eighty-seven point six percent of the time.

But with what just happened, he thought that Robin would start back up his old habit. _He's probably gonna seta new record soon too_ , he thought. _What was Robin thinking yelling something like that?_ Robin had always been the most level headed among all of them, though Cyborg was a close second. He thought about what the future could hold for all of them.

His thoughts drifted to his other teammates. _Raven's been smiling a lot more recently too. I can bet that's definitely going a way too. I wonder what's been the cause of that? Could be her dad's not been around for a long time now. Maybe BB's jokes finally got to her. Ha, yah right. She'll never find that kid funny._

Thinking about his always chipper green friend, his thoughts darkened. _He's probably gonna be telling a lot fewer jokes too. That kid always is able to be happy, but I think he just met his match._ Dark thoughts ran through his mind as he made his way back home. So lost in thought, he didn't realize that he'd already made it back to the tower.

When he walked in to the main room, he found it completely empty. "Figured everyone would have beat me back, considering they can all fly." After realizing that not all parties mentioned could fly, he still didn't revise his answer. "He found a way, he always does." Soon after he heard a slam of a door from way up in the living quarters. _How hard do you have to slam a door for me to hear it down hear?_ Cyborg's superior design of the tower included fairly high quality sound proofing. Instead of debating the subject more he instead put all his effort into making left over baby back ribs into a second delicious meal.

Upstairs, a teenage girl just slammed a door with her full strength. Now, normal teenage girl can slam a door fairly hard when angry enough, but they also have the help from a door with hinges on one side that are easy to slam. Titan's Tower doesn't have doors that slam easily because they automatically slide, but to the girl that just slammed the door, it didn't make a difference. That's because the normal teenage girl is born on planet earth, not on Tamaran, where this particular teenage girl was born. With the amount of righteous fury this teenage girl was feeling right now, she completely ripped the door off it's sliding track and imbedded it into the other side. The force of the throw made the door crumple, leaving an eight-inch gap between the edge of the now crumpled door, and the frame.

Angrier and more hurt than she had ever been before Starfire stormed over to her bed and sat on the edge. Having never dealt with such emotion before, she had no idea on how to handle it. It completely overloaded her mind, and she just sat there on her bed, head lowered and her hands clasped together sitting in her lap while she just stared at the ground. She couldn't even manage to think back to what just happened, she just sat in shock. Every time she became angry prior to today, her eyes glowed a dangerous bright green, but she was so completely broken, it almost looked as if the green color paled. Time was forgotten as she just sat dwelling in a hell of her own crushing pain.

On the other side of the door stood a teenage boy. Most teenage boys live lives full of stupidity and become quite deft at deflating situations in order to lessen the punishment. The difference between this teenage boy and all others, is that none have ever been as nervous as he was right now, and the sight of the mangled door in front of him only made him feel even worse. When Robin was fifteen, he thought the Batmobile was feeling lonely and needed a joyride to make it feel better. Fifteen minutes later he had to confess to the Dark Knight himself he just totaled the Batmobile. Not scratched up, not dented, not crashed, totaled. Up until now that was the most nervous he'd ever been, but right now he'd rather confess to totaling the Batmobile, Batwing, the Justice League's Watchtower, and accidentally burning down Wayne Manor to Batman than face the Tamaranean girl on the other side of the door.

Robin spent the entire time hopping from rooftop to rooftop all the way back to the tower furiously trying to think of things he could possibly say to convey how terrible he felt right now, and he thought he had something that might work in his mind right now. He analyzed the situation over and over again in his head, and found enough evidence to escuse his behavior. He had organized them all in a complete argument in his head, and he now reached forward to knock, but hesitated thinking it pointless considering how the door looked right now. He knocked anyway.

Clearing his throat multiple times, he began, "Star?" no response "Starfire?" still no response "I know you're in there because of the current state of your door.'" And after pausing yet again, added "And I know you can hear me because of, well, the current state of your door." With still no response from Starfire, he thought it might just be better to say everything he thought of on the way to the tower, but when he opened his mouth, nothing came out. He realized all of it was wrong, he couldn't prepare a speech before hand to be unceremoniously repeated. Instead he began where he felt at his worst.

"I have done many things in life that I regret. I regret lying to all of you when I secretly became Red X. I regret almost arresting Beast Boy after we found him and Raven in the sewer when he became the Beast for the first time. I regret Losing my cool with Cyborg, making him temporarily leave the team. I regret not being able to make Terra see the error of her ways right before she threw me down a whole. I regret turning my back on her too. I regret spending hours upon hours in the evidence room pouring over case files instead of spending time with you guys."

Robin paused to catch his breath and then continued, "But when I think back to the things I regret the most, they're all about how I've treated you. I regret taking away your ability to fly when we crash landed on that uncharted planet. I regret hurting you when I thought I saw Slade run past you in the forest. I regret the fact that when I was forced into being Slade's apprentice you refused to attack me, but I still attacked you. I regret letting Val Yor treat you terribly when we were on mission with him. But more than any of these things I regret following in his footsteps today and calling you 'Troq.' I will not make excuses for my self. I will not try to apologize, because I have crossed a line that I never should have, and I do not deserve your forgiveness."

He stared at the door in silence. Still no response. He turned to leave after saying what he needed to say knowing the girl had no reason to hear, let alone forgive, him but was stopped by a voice on the other side of the door. It was a very quiet voice, full of pain and all that was said was, "You may enter." In an almost inaudible voice. Turning back to the door, with a small grin on his face, he grabbed the edge and pulled. It didn't budge a millimeter.

The grin disappeared as quickly as it came. "Uh, Star. I need your help opening the door."

He heard the sound of Starfire getting up from her bed, and her heavy steps coming towards the door. In one swift motion the door was pulled free from the doorframe and set down next to the opening, leaning against the wall. He stood facing Starfire from across the threshold, but before anything else was said, she retreated farther into her room.

He followed her as slowly and delicately as possible and stood there, not willing to destroy the fragile peace that stood right now. The Tamaranean also stood there, and the two just looked at each other keeping both their mouths tightly shut. Starfire couldn't hold it back any more. She lunged toward Robin and held him close in a hug and did not let go. This action surprised Robin, but not as nearly as much as the strength behind the hug. He knew very well that Starfire's hugs could leave bruising for days, but right now he could barely feel her arms around him she held him so weakly. Robin, scared of what this could mean, did what he thought could be only right thing to do. He made up the difference in strength and began to hug her back as strongly as he possibly could. Ever so slowly, he felt the pressure of her arms around him increase. He kept holding her until his muscles began to burn, and only stopped squeezing when her strength grew until it outmatched his.

While Robin still held her, Starfire began speaking. At first sounding muffled as her face was pressed against his shoulder, but the longer she spoke the clearer she sounded as she began to lift her head and meet his gaze, "Robin, I must confess. Returning to our home after our fight at the station was most difficult. When first leaving the station, I could only run, because I was unable to muster enough joy to fly. The longer I ran the more sadness filled me. I soon feared that I would be forced to run the entire length back, but then I began thinking about you. I thought about you, friend Robin, even though it was you that hurt me so deeply, and it was a hope that you did not mean what you had said that first enabled me to leave the ground. I faltered many times over the flight back, but each time it was hope that you were still my friend that helped me rise back into the air each time."

Robin felt sick. How could he ever deserve to know let alone be the friend of, such a perfect girl. He couldn't believe it. He'd done the unthinkable, and she still used him as a source of joy to enable her flight. He realized how much he cared about this girl and intended to let her know how much she mattered to him. He separated slightly from her and brought her face up to look at her. Readying himself to tell her that very thing, he saw her eyes shift to the broken door behind him.

She instead took a step back from Robin saying, "Oh, I have ruined this door and friend Cyborg must repair it. I have the feelings of remorse for causing him to do so. Come! Let us go apologize to him at once!" And with that, she grabbed Robin by the hand and whisked him out of the room, while Robin cursed himself for missing his opportunity.

Cyborg had just finished putting together the left overs of the baby back ribs he made two nights ago when an orange blur rushed out of the door and into the kitchen. Before he could take a bite Starfire was standing right in front of him, dragging a dazed Robin behind her. To say he was shocked would be an understatement. He didn't expect the Tamaranean to up and about so quickly, especially holding hands with Robin like she was right now.

"Friend Cyborg, I am informing you that I had, um, had an unfortunate encounter with my door, and I am wanting to give you all the apologies for doing so. May you please fix it for me?" and finished it off with a simply dazzling smile.

"Of course, Star, I'd be happy to fix your door!"

"Glorious! Now if you two friends will do the excusing of me, I am wanting to fly around our home for a time." And with that the alien girl released Robin's hand and flew out the door at a break neck pace, leaving the two boys alone.

After a short silence Cyborg looked to his leader, "Ok man, I gotta ask. How in the Nine Circles of Hell did you get that girl to turn around so quickly? I thought we were doomed to a week of silence around the tower, followed by months of hostility."

Robin just smirk back at his robotic friend and responded with, "I have my ways."

Outraged that his friend would not reveal his secret, Cyborg began loudly listing all possibilities he could think of, "Is it the hair? There's no way you could have talked your way out of that! You can give one Hell of a good speech to inspire a team before a battle, but anything thing that has to do with emotions, you trip over your words like no other! You'd probably just try to give evidence that justified your actions!" Robin cringed at that answering knowing that that was almost exactly plan A "Did you promise a ride in the Batmobile? A future spot on the Justice League? A tour of Europe? You gotta tell me man!"

Robin just held his smirk and shrugged his shoulders, "Where would the fun be if I told you all my secrets?"

Cyborg had to now hold back the urge to strangle the skinny kid standing in front of him, "I'm lucky that I haven't seen the little grass stain, since I would have bet every penny I own that you two wouldn't be talking for months after that stunt you just pulled. Is he even back yet?"

A short distance away, the 'grass stain' spoke, "Thanks for lettin' me stick around Raven! I'm sure things aren't too bright and happy back home." Beast Boy said to Raven as they both sat under a tree in a park not too far from Tian's Tower. "Don't mention it." She replied in a steady monotone, as she turned the next the page in her book in her lap.

"I mean I really am happy that you thought it'd be ok for me to chill with you. Dude, what do you think Starf-" but the loud clap of a book closing quickly deftly silenced him.

Raven shot a glare over at her teammate, "You see Beast Boy, When I said 'Don't mention it.' It wasn't a figure of speech to show my politeness; I was actually telling you not to talk about it. Now, this is a very good book, and it's difficult to concentrate on it with you yapping on incessantly. So," She paused letting her words sit, "If I may." And with that she re-opened her book and resumed reading.

Now it would seem obvious that this would be a fine time to shut up, but somehow Beast Boy didn't get the memo. "Ooh, is it a good book? What's it about? Oh that totally reminds me of a joke I heard about books! Ok, so one book tells another book that he looks a lot skinnier, and the other book says-" but before he could deliver the punchline, Raven opened a portal right where Beast Boy was sitting, causing him to fall through and disappear. "Thanks, I had my appendix removed!" Beast Boy laughed until he opened his eyes expecting to see Raven laughing but instead saw that he was sitting on the couch in his own living room. "Dude! That one was totally gonna get a laugh for sure! It was the perfect joke for Raven! It was about books and it even had a big word in it!"

[End Chapter]

Good? Bad? Let me know. I thought it was starting to get too dreary (plenty of time for that later) so I thought I'd heal some wounds. Is Control Freak starting to become a bigger issue with the help of the mayor's new bill? Is it enough to start dividing the Titans? If not tell me what would. Also, I'm trying to improve the length on each chapter my goal is too be at least 5,000 words every chapter, but I'm still pushing to go farther. You like? Finally, I want to thank you all for reviewing (even you, anonymous person that copy and pasted five pages of gibberish in the reviews for some reason), following or anything of the sort. Be happy in the fact that each time I read a review or see someone followed or favorited my story, I'm smiling ear to ear. Oh! Also, if you were confused by the couple waiting in the police station, they were the Winchesters, and the man murdered was James McKinney. Who were they? Who knows, but they weren't his parents. All in all, I liked this chapter, but is it Above Average in your book?


	4. Chapter 4

Cyborg was also still in the kitchen when Beast Boy appeared out of no where on the couch. He hadn't fully recovered from the last miracle he witnessed when Robin and Starfire walked into the room, hand in hand. Now, with Beast Boy materializing on his couch, spouting the end of what had to be a god awful joke, he got a much surprising second miracle. He would have yelled in surprise with Beast Boy appearance, but he was mid bite with his sweet baby back ribs, and instead inhaled a chunk of meat which lodged itself in his throat. Cyborg was to busy banging his chest and repeatedly swallowing to keep himself from choking to hear Beast Boy's later comments. Eventually, the once sweet meat that had now betrayed him and almost got him killed, went down. He stood there coughing and sucking in deep breaths, appreciating the fact that he was alive.

Recovering enough to speak, he finally choked out, "Yo BB! You almost just killed me right now! The hell you doin' poppin' up out of nowhere right onto our couch?! Where have ya been man?!"

Surprised that he had an audience the whole time, he decided to play it cool. "Oh hey Cy, what are you doing here? I was just uh, taking a nap. Yah I was just taking a nap here. You, uh, come here often?" With it being Beast Boy, of course, it was anything but cool.

"Um I live here here bro, and for as long as you have too. I'm Just trying to enjoy these ribs here!" He angrily pointed to his meal that was slowly growing cold with all the interruptions. He bent back down to continue his meal, and Beast Boy thought he'd escape an interrogation.

Before, Cyborg took a bite, he looked back at his green friend. He set the food back down and stepped towards him, saying, "Did you say you you were taking a nap? I've been here for at least twenty minutes and I didn't see you come in? And you were talking just now, and not a sleep talking kind of way, you were pretty much yelling."

"Uhhh, I have a rare disease that almost killed me and the cure made me turn green. It also makes me uh-" Beast Boy paused not knowing what could excuse his actions, "sleep, uh, yell sometimes. Yah! That's it, it makes me sleep yell." He finished and rubbed the back of his head and neck with a nervous smile.

"Huh, I never knew that was a side affect of you gaining your powers, you never told us when we all talked about our backstories."

Beast Boy just stared back having no idea what to say in response. "Yep, sure is." But he tried anyway.

"And why haven't I heard you sleep yell before?" Cyborg asked finding even more holes in Beast Boy's explanation.

Beast Boy decided that changing the subject was the best course of action. "Dude, did you hear what I said when I was talking, I mean sleep yelling?" He chuckled nervously, hoping his friend didn't here what he was saying.

Cyborg shook his head, "No man, I was too busy keeping myself from choking on my ribs here." Again, he pointed to his food behind him that by now was fairly cold.

Beast Boy let out a sigh of relief he didn't know he was holding in, "Good."

"Good?" Cyborg asked in a confused tone.

"Well I-uh you know, uh, that sometimes uh-Oh my God, Cyborg! Silkie's eating your ribs!"

Cyborg turned back to his ribs faster than Kid Flash could, "Oh no you don't you little pest! I'm gonna-" but his ribs sat there just as he left them. "Uh BB, you seeing things now? Silkie's not even in here." He turned back around to hear his friend's response but he was no where to be seen.

There was a green fly that just exited out the window nearby though. It flew up towards the roof, and once reaching its destination, transformed back into a human. "Whew, that was a close one!" He walked towards the door dusting his hands off, happy with the general outcome of the situation. Before he could make it back inside, Starfire was just returning from her joy-ride (or joy-flight?) and called out to Beast Boy

"Hello friend Beast Boy, it is glorious to be seeing you outside as well! Please, tell me why you join me in the wonderful weather we are experiencing?"

"Oh ya' know, uh, just thought I'd get some fresh air." Beast Boy said as he gave himself a mental high five for playing it off so well. Happy that she suspected nothing, he thought about why Starfire was out here with him. He realized that he'd expect her to be anything but happy, but she looked so exuberant that she was practically glowing.

"Hey Star, why are you so happy? Shouldn't you be feeling terrible right now?" He cringed at at his word choice the second he finished speaking. He cursed himself for always putting his foot in his mouth. Instinctively, he jumped away from Starfire as she began speeding towards him. He'd said so many stupid things around Raven, it was almost instinct to assume a defensive position, when he misspoke.

Even with his practice with Raven, he was still not ready for the pro linebacker like tackle that hit him and brought him up in the air in a bone crushing hug. As Beast Boy began to feel like his ribcage was starting to shatter, Starfire began, "Oh, friend Beast Boy, the most wondrous of things happened! Robin came to talk to me, and he said words that made my heart feel like it was in the warmest of temperatures!" Beast Boy was just starting to feel the effects of oxygen deprivation, but was able to squeeze out "Heart…Warming?" Starfire released her death grip hug on Beast Boy to hold him in front of her face to happily shout, "Exactly, my friend!" only to bring him right back into a second bone crushing hug.

She continued her story as Beast Boy struggled. "He said the most kind words to me. He said he regretted much in life, but he regrets how he may sometimes treat me in a manner unpleasing the most!"

"Uh… Star?" Beast Boy wheezed.

"I tried to remain angry at friend Robin, but I could not do so! I permitted him to enter my room, but in my anger I had rendered the door unusable. He asked for my assistance in opening the door, which I found most amusing, but did not tell him so!"

"Can't… breathe." Beast Boy tried again.

"I embraced friend Robin, but was very weak when I did the hugging. He embraced me with much strength, and I was greatly comforted by this. Slowly, I too began to embrace him back with much strength."

"Help." Beast Boy was getting desperate.

"I told him that my journey home was most difficult, and I could not summon enough joy to fly. I said that a hope that we could still be friends was the joy that enabled me to fly home."

"Need.." Beast Boy began.

"He looked at me with the most adorable of faces when I mentioned this. It did the removal of, um" but forgot what word she was trying to say. "What is the element that which humans breath on planet earth?"

"…Oxygen." Beast Boy finished so very weakly after being strangled for such a long period of time.

Starfire heard him and once again brought him up to eye level and proclaimed to the world, "Yes indeed, friend Beast Boy! It is oxygen! His look brought the removal of oxygen from my chest! You have been most helpful with me, but you must do the excusing of me while I go find friend Robin, now."

She deposited the shape shifter back onto the roof and soared inside, leaving the shape shifter panting on the ground, just happy surive such a ferocious hug from his alien friend. From the ground, he weakly raised a finger, and in between gasps said to Stafire, who was now gone, "Took my breathe away?"

Back inside, Starfire flew back into the main room where Cyborg finally managed to finish his meal without interruption.

"Cyborg, have you seen friend Robin? I wish to speak to him." Starfire asked, still floating rather high off the ground.

Cyborg finished putting his dirty dishes in the washer and looked up at the alien, "Yah, he said he was gonna review a few cases up in the evidence room, after he refused to tell me his secret. That wasn't too long ago, so I'd bet he's still up there."

Starfire embraced him in a quick hug, that only left minor dents, and after a quick thank you, rushed off to find Robin, leaving Cyborg by himself again.

Seeing that he was done cleaning up after himself, he moved over to the t.v. to unwind for a bit. He got himself comfortable and was surfing through channels, but was not finding much that was able to hold his interest. He heard the door open and looked over to see Raven walk in with her hood down.

"Hey girl, what's shakin'?" Cyborg asked in a chirpy voice.

"That's a terrible idiom, please don't use it again, and also, don't call me girl." Raven said without any hint of emotion on her face. When Cyborg visibly darkened, she felt ashamed and corrected herself. "Sorry, Cyborg, that was too harsh. I'm just feeling little off right now."

Cyborg's smile instantly returned. "Don't even worry about it, we were all a bit _shaken_ after what happened down at the station." Raven only responded with a raised eyebrow. "Sorry, poor choice of words." Cyborg added.

Raven just shrugged it off and looked at her friend, but when she responded, her eyes fell to the ground. "Actually it's not that. I'm actually looking for Beast Boy because I need to, I need to…" but she hesitated and turned a slight shade of red. She eventually got it out after a nice shove from Brave up in her head. "I need to apologize to Beast Boy for something." Feeling the heat rising from her cheeks she decided to pull her hood up to save her at least some dignity.

She jumped slightly from a loud clack resounding from the remote that fell from Cyborg's hand and landed loudly on the floor. She looked over at Cyborg's surprised face, with his mouth hanging wide open and asked, "What?"

That was the last straw, and Cyborg finally snapped. "I don't know what is going around here! Is there a genie hiding somewhere? Did Jesus show up and start doing miracles for fun or somethin'? Or am I just plain startin' to lose my mind? First Robin get's Starfire to forgive him in under ten minutes, when I thought it was gonna be years of bad blood between those two. Then Beast Boy appears out out no where yellin' like a mad man, and claimin' he's been there the whole time. And now you! You're saying that you, RAVEN, need to apologize to BEAST BOY?! Are you guys joining in on some elaborate scheme of Beast Boy's to make me feel like I'm goin' crazy, cuz it is workin'!"

Raven just blinked, and in an uneasy voice replied, "Actually the second one was the reason why I need to apologize to Beast Boy. I kind of transported him back to the tower mid-sentence, because he couldn't keep his mouth shut while I was trying to read. I thought it was funny at first, but when I tried to keep reading, I couldn't concentrate on the book very well anymore. I thought I'd just apologize so I can concentrate on reading again."

Cyborg had calmed back down by the time Raven finished her story and nodded his head as things were starting to come together. "Well that explains the last two, but not Robin. Why can't he tell me how he did it? Anyway, haven't seen BB since he showed up on the couch." He told Raven with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Well at least I know I'm accurate at teleporting people if he landed on the couch. Thanks anyway Cyborg." Raven said turning around to go find the green shape shifter. As she left the room she heard Cyborg call out, "Any time." In her search for Beast Boy, she passed right by the door of the evidence room in which two of her teammates were conversing in.

"I am glad that you are looking into the case that belongs to Control Freak again. It is very 'heart warming' to see you do this." Starfire said to Robin

Robin ducked his head and fiercely battled the blush creeping up on his cheeks. He was caught off guard by her correct use of a saying, and was curious of where she picked it up. He looked back at Starfire, who was looking at him expectantly, and he remembered that he probably needed to give a response. "Uh, yah Star, I thought it could use another review. It's the right thing to do." He thought it was a solid response, more easily said than 'I'd do absolutely anything to see you happy and smiling.'

Starfire looked back at Robin, but her eyes narrowed, and she bit her lip. She sat there a while with the concentrated look on her face, and the longer it went on, the more Robin became nervous. She was pondering something that she couldn't quite think her way through. Finally, she cracked and had to ask, successfully relieving Robin of his nervousness, "Friend Robin? Would you please tell me the meaning of 'right'? On Tamararean, I believe our definition differs from yours here on earth."

Robin took a deep breath before answering. "Well, I guess, a dictionary definition is something that is morally good, justified, or acceptable." Yes, Robin had the definition of 'right' memorized, along with 'justice,' 'intelligence,' 'stealth,' and 'good-looking-hair,' incase the need ever arose. "But if you want something more than that, it's acting upon the feeling you get when you see something bad and want to correct it. That's doing the right thing."

Starfire was very pleased with the team leaders answer (I mean, he's the team leader for a reason), and thanked him with a bone crushing hug. "You are so very amazing for helping me with this, friend Robin! This has helped me see clearly that it is not so different here than in my home, but I will leave you to continue 'the digging' to prove Control Freak's innocence." She disappeared before Robin could tell her that he didn't mind the company. Robin frowned at the door, saddened by Starfire's sudden exit.

Instead of retreating to her room or any other comfortable place in Titan's Tower, she left her quiet home entirely. She left Beast Boy still relaxing on the roof enjoying the view and awesome weather, Raven, who opted to meditate heavily before confronting the aforementioned changeling, Cyborg, who was watching a show on t.v. that he was rather enjoying, and Robin working away at his desk.

She flew across town, thinking back to her conversation with Robin and felt greatly encouraged. She arrived at her destination, and floated above the building she wished to enter. If she was remembering correctly, her destination was right beneath where she was floating. Taking a second to think about her decision, she solidified her choice, and flew through the ceiling of the building, landing directly in front of a very startled man's cell.

"Control Freak, you have two minutes to proove your innocence to me."

Back at the tower, everyone inside finished their respective activity, and they all joined Cyborg on the couch. It took them a while to settle on what they wanted to watch, but finally, they settled on watching a game of college basketball, because it was interesting enough without drawing lines between team members. Robin was just beginning to wonder where Starfire was when she walked through the door with a nervous smile on her face.

"Hello dear friends, I have returned!" She said loudly but with slight uncertainty. Not knowing that she had left, they all just nodded their heads, until Robin spoke up. "Okay, care to join us? We're watching some basketball."

Remembering back to the time Robin tried explaining the sport to her, she smiled, "I would enjoy that very much! Before I join you, friends, I would like to inform all of you that I went and visited Control Freak."

Finding nothing wrong with that, they all smiled back.

"That's so cool of you Star! I didn't know there were visiting hours for that kinda' stuff!" Beast boy said cheerfully.

Starfire blushed and responded, "Well, I am not aware if they do the visiting of hours. I entered through my own accord." Her teammates still smiled not fully understanding what she meant. "Through the ceiling." She added.

The smiles began to falter. "Well as long as we pay for the repairs, they shouldn't be too mad, right?" Cyborg responded trying to keep things positive. Before anyone else could weigh in, the alarms blared throughout the tower. On the t.v. screen, the game was replaced by information about the crime that had just caused the alarm to go off.

There was a jail break at the police station.

Everyone, ever so slowly, turned their heads to look back at Starfire, who still stood in the opening of the door. "Um, Starfire? Did you happen to do anything else while you were visiting Control Freak?" Raven asked in the least judgmental tone of voice she had.

In response, Control Freak leaned out from behind Starfire and nervously waved at the Titans.

The Titan's had never been so surprised in their life.

Dead silence reigned for what seemed to be a never-ending eternity. The crime alert was completely ignored. The four stared at the two across the room. The two stared back at the four.

Starfire broke the silence "Did I do something wrong?"

Raven was the only person there that was able to overcome her shock. "I'd consider breaking a criminal out of Jail to be wrong." She deadpanned back, eyes still wide from surprise.

"I disagree, friend Raven. He was wrongfully imprisoned, and it was declared by the man on the television, that he was to die. Is that not the right thing to do?" Starfire asked, now growing very nervous because of her friends' response.

"Well yah, that is Star, but the dude might not be innocent." Beast Boy spoke up.

"Did you not say that you believed the man to be innocent as well, friend Beast Boy?"

Beast Boy went quiet again mulling over what the Tamaranean girl said, rubbing his chin as he did so. After thinking it out he replied, "I mean I do, but I wasn't gonna break him outa' jail though. Maybe just spoke for him in trial."

"But the man on television! He said they would kill this man as a warning to other criminals! How could Control Freak not be killed?"

"Because that's how the justice system works! If he's innocent, he'll go free. Robin's been looking into that all day now, whatchu' been able to find man?" Cyborg asked his leader.

Robin just stared distantly at Starfire. He hadn't spoken the entire time. When he finally did, Starfire wished he hadn't, "I haven't found anything. I was going to tell you that, once I saw you again. I'm sorry Star. There's nothing we can do."

Starfire looked down at the floor and closed her eyes. When she reopened them, she looked boldly back at Robin, "I see no problem because he is not currently in jail."

"No, Starfire, we just turn him back in, and everything will be ok. Especially if no one saw you break him out." Robin said with a hint of desperation in his voice. He had no idea what implications this could lead to.

She looked away for a moment, burrying the hurt that her team did not see her point of view deep inside her. When she looked back, she had a fierce look in her eye, and was ready to defend what she had done. "Do you not believe that killing is wrong, friend Robin? You do not take life when you battle villains, why is it different now?" Starfire asked.

"There's a difference between me killing people with my hands, and me sending them to be tried and found guilty, sentencing them to death. If I were to kill, then I would be taking the law into my own hands, making myself a higher power. In this case, I'm just a step in the justice system. We need to return him to jail and let the justice system run its course." Robin responded confidently, he knew his reasons behind his actions well.

"But, I do not wish to have Control Freak returned to his imprisonment." Said Starfire with anger slowly rising in her voice.

Robin again answered her, as the other Titan's were backing out of the conversation, fearing the situation could escalate very quickly. "Starfire, you can't do that. It's not right."

Starfire looked at Robin, and began to approach him slowly, step by step, "Not right, Robin? You told me what 'right' was today, and what I have done is what you have told me what was right." She was getting closer to Robin as her eyes were beginning to narrow.

"No Star, that was not what I was saying. You're breaking the law, and we need to put him back in jail." Robin said, hiding the fear in the the back of his mind, as the Tamaranean was moving towards him, getting angrier with every step.

"The law may help find what is right, but they are not the same." Starfire said as she slowly closed the gap between the two. "Tell me, Robin, do you know what it feels like to be wrongfully imprisoned, knowing that you could die at any moment?"

Robin looked down at the floor, no longer able to hold her gaze. He had forgotten in his surprise at first, and now in his anger that Starfire knew what it was like to be in that situation, and he did not. Knowing his answer, he looked back up, only to find that the taller alien girl was now face to face with him.

He didn't flinch.

"Maybe I don't Star, but I've talked to you, and I know the two aren't the same." The watching Titan's knew not whether that was a very brave thing to say or a death wish. It certainly got the Tamaranean's attention as her eyes began to faintly glow green. This was the second angriest Robin had ever seen Starfire, the first being when he was forced to take Kitten to prom.

"Do you truly believe that, Robin? You believe these circumstances are not the same, because I would disagree greatly. I know exactly what it feels like, and I cannot stand idly by and watch something that I know so well to be wrong." She told Robin. Everyone in the room could feel the tension. "If Control Freak is not welcome here, then we are leaving." She turned around to walk back towards Control Freak, but Robin spoke stopping her in her tracks.

"No, Starfire, you're not."

She turned around, eyes now glowing now a fierce green and teeth bared. This was now the angriest he had ever seen her, yet it differed greatly than second place. In the situation with Kitten, she had a look in her eye, that maybe him wonder if she would actually kill Kitten. Now, there was absolutely no emotion in her eyes, but that only made him fear her more.

Eyeing, what could soon be her enemy up and down, she scoffed, "You do not have the power to stop me, Robin."

Control Freak had never spoken the entire dispute. He wasn't a big time baddie, he was more of a fan than villain, and this all seemed too real for him. Even though he saw them as enemies, he still idolized them. Now as he watched everything unfold, he realized that he hated to the Titan's so divided like this. He knew things would be getting ugly, and he stepped toward Starfire for protection.

With Control Freak now standing next to her, she turned her gaze from Robin to the giant window to his right. The glow of her eyes became brighter until a solid beam shot out of them, and shattered the window before her, sending glass everywhere in the room. Three of the Titan's jumped, and shielded themselves from the blast. Robin did not even move, ignoring what just happened, and only kept his gaze on Starfire. She turned back to her leader, eyes still glowing green but now smoking. She gave him a look that dared him to make protest to her actions. Robin stood still as a statue with no fear in his eyes. She grabbed Control Freak's wrist and shot out the now destroyed window and soared into the sky.

Robin looked after her, and reached for his belt. Before he could grab anything, his hand was encased in black energy that completely stopped his movement. Knowing only one person could do that, he turned his head and looked furiously at her. He saw Raven with her hand outstretched, glowing with the same dark energy, standing next to his other two teammates, and all of them were shaking their heads.

"So, is that it? We just let them go?" Robin asked aggressively, barely holding it together. He tugged his arm trying to release it from the energy that was holding it. Robin, never in his life thought something like his would ever happen. His friends could not even find it in them to respond. Knowing that his friends would never release him, if he was acting outraged, so he buried all he was feeling. He forced his facial features to relax and he looked back at his team. "Okay, you're right. I'm calm now, they're too far away to reach, so could you let go of my hand now?"

His teammates glanced at each other, and after all gave short nods, Raven released his hand. He turned on his heel and marched out of the room. Once the door closed behind him, his control started to slip again. He told himself to hold on just a little longer, and increased his pace. He stopped all thoughts coming into his head, and focused on putting one foot in front of the other. It was all too much, he could feel himself slipping, so he began to sprint. He just was running without an end, without a destination. He thought if he kept running, he wouldn't have to face his problems, if he never stopped, he could outrun them. He took turns as they came, went through doors that he did not know where they would lead, he went up stairs, he went down stairs. His lungs began to burn and his legs were beginning to give out. Reaching complete exhaustion, he collapsed to floor, taking in ragged breaths as he laid on his hands and knees. Looking up, he found himself in the safe room they built for Raven, when Slade sought to bring her to Trigon.

He sat there on the floor of the room when the full reality of what just happened came crashing down on him. He thought of his wonderful talk with Starfire about right and wrong. Next came Starfire returning, saying she had visited Control Freak. Then came the knowledge that she had sprung Control Freak from Jail. After that, Starfire in his face, angrier than he's ever seen. Then him challenging her in a way that was oretty much a threat. As he thought about his final act of reaching to his belt to stop her while her back was turned, he couldn't take it. He, just couldn't take the pain of his closet friend leaving, the hurt of having her so angry with him, or the guilt of raising a hand to stop her.

Everything boiled over at once, and Robin ripped his mask off his face as he knelt in a room at the center of the tower and screamed. He poured out everything inside in that primal cry. Tears began to squeeze out of his tightly shut eyes and run down his cheeks and eventually dropping to the floor.

He'd almost done it. He almost hurt Starfire. Had his friend's not been there, he would have. This time, there was no evil plot that forced him to attack her to keep her from dying. There was only his pride and anger. He was sick of his actions, and he had no way of escaping them. He sat there, drowning in his guilt as his yelling turned into sobbing.

He cried into his hands for a long period of time, that was unknown to him. All he knew was the pain he felt. Eventually, he opened his eyes, and in front of him sat a seal, blurred by the tears in his eye. He remembered researching the runes runes with Cyborg. They were words in an ancient language all but forgotten. Four in total he turned to look at them. To his left: strength, to his right: perseverance, behind him: love, and right in front of him: family.

He couldn't take it anymore; this was not a family. A family, didn't act this way. A family didn't threaten each other, and they definitely didn't reach to pull pull weapons on each other. He frankly, couldn't look at the rune anymore, so he lunged. He threw a fist into the reinforced steel they made the walls out of, as hard as he could, and he did not care. He threw another punch, and a third, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth. The seams of his gloves split. Seven. Eight. The skin on his knuckles followed after the gloves. Nine. Ten. The sigil began to be covered by his blood, but he did not stop. He threw punch after punch, and blood began to flow freely from the open wounds on his knuckles, but he kept going. After minutes of Robin pouring out all his anger and pain onto the wall with his blood, he looked at the symbol for family again, completely concealed now behind a layer of red, and only then did he stop. He collapsed back to the floor, exhausted from the amount of energy he'd just expended. He looked down at his mangled knuckles, and focused on them instead. This pain was superficial, only hurting him on the surface, and he very much preferred it to how it felt on the inside. He'd felt worse physical pain, and he knew that was something he was capable of handling. Slowly, he began to wrestle his emotions back into place. He made the tears cease, calmed his ragged breathing, and forced all emotion off his face, as he stared at his hands

Outside the room, Beast Boy walked in the hallway towards the same room Robin sat in. He'd retreated back to the safe room before, and found it relaxing and hoped it would do the same today. When the door opened, he stumbled back in surprise, almost falling but able to catch himself before doing so. His leader sat, crumpled, on the ground with the wall in front of him completely covered in blood. What scared him more, was the fact that he saw Robin's mask sitting behind its owner on the floor, completely forgotten. He had never seen his leader without his mask in all the years he knew him. Beast Boy stood watching his friend on the ground, as he tried to think of what he should possibly do, until he realized the only thing he could do. Steeling himself, he stepped forward towards his leader, picking up the mask on the way. He knelt behind Robin, and extended his hand past his shoulder, holding the mask up in front of his leader's face for him to see it. Robin, didn't acknowledge his friend's presence in the slightest, but reached up and took the mask out of Beast Boy's hand.

Beast Boy let a small gasp escape his mouth when he caught sight of Robin's hand when he reached for the mask. Beast Boy couldn't believe how much blood was on them, and could hardly imagine how much they must hurt. Robin secured his mask back on his face, smearing blood on the edge of his mask and his cheek and stood to face his teammate. The two stared at each other for a moment. Beast Boy knew words were his downfall, so he tried to use as few as possible. He placed a hand on his shoulder and said, "Let's get you to Raven."

Robin gave no verbal response, but nodded and began to walk with Beast Boy next to him, very conscious of the fact that the sigil meaning love was shining over the door he walked through. The entire walk up to the infirmary was dead silent. On the way, Beast Boy sent a message to Raven to tell her to meet them there.

When they arrived, Raven was already there pacing slightly. Beast Boy's message unsettled her. The first thought was that it would be some sort of prank, but with what just happened, she doubted it. Beast Boy had an awful taste in jokes, but this was far too dark for him. All she knew is that Robin needed help, but had no idea what for. When she saw the state of Robin's hands, she was able to stifle a gasp, but couldn't help her eyes from widening. Seeing how torn up they were, she had to ask, "What happened?"

Before Robin could reply, Beast Boy jumped in front, "He got a little too eager to get to puchin' the bag and didn't wrap his wrists or put the gloves on. Next time, he will though." Beast Boy covered with an awkward laugh, thinking it might not be the best thing to mention his true target. Raven walked over to her leader, and immediately put her hands over his, covering them in a light blue glow. She looked at his face as she healed him, but just looking at him, she knew that he wasn't going to want to continue talking about his injury.

Seeing that Robin was now in good hands, Beast Boy began to back out of the room, "Well, seeing you two are busy, I'll go bug Cyborg or somethin'" He started down the hallway, but not in Cyborg's direction.

Beast Boy had made his fair share of messes over his time spent in the tower, so he knew where exactly where to find cleaning supplies. No, he may not have practice in cleaning up blood, but he was confident he'd be able to figure it out. Reaching the safe room after picking up the necessary supplies, he got straight to work. Work started slow, for Beast Boy was not quite sure what would work, but once finding which cleaner worked best, it went much faster. He slowly uncovered the rune, and wondered if this specific symbol was the target to his friend's rage, or if it was just chance. He too remembered exactly what the rune meant, and hoped that it was just an accident. He knew Robin would take something like this badly, but he didn't expect his leader to almost break his hands on a wall. A few minutes later, he stepped back to inspect his work and found it spotless.

After putting back the cleaning supplies where he found them, he decided to check back in on Robin's recovery. He walked through the door, right when Robin was putting a new pair of gloves on. He also saw that Cyborg now joined the other two in the room, leaning again the wall with his arms crossed and head bowed. Raven sat on a stool next to one of the cots, and she was also looking at the ground. Robin looked at Beast Boy and said, "Good, you're here. I need to talk to you all, about what just happened with Starfire."

[End Chapter]

Hey! it was pointed out to me that this chapter got screwed up when I tried to post it. Hopefully now it looks right! My bad people, my bad!

And there you have it folks, the first of many breaks on this team. Would Starfire actually risk everything like that? I thought so, but I want to know what you think. If you want to know my thought process: 1) Starfire has had past experience in imprisonment 2) She's Tamararean so she lives by impulse and emotion 3) She followed the guidelines of "right" that Robin laid out 4) Control was clearly innocent in her eyes, and he was in risk of getting killed. If you still think I'm wrong, tell me. Also, I know, JP-Ryder, that you wanted more scandal and mistrust, but hopefully this works too. Finally…

ATTENTION READERS!

I realized I'm gonna need a back story to the "newly elected mayor" and I don't have a solid idea yet. I'm asking you guys, if you think you have a good idea, to give me a back story for him. That won't come into play for a while, but if I see one I like, I'll write it into the story and give you a gigantic shout out and thank you at the end of the chapter. Deal?

I think I did a solid job. What did you think? Above Average in your book?


	5. Chapter 5

[Back to right after Starfire's fiery exit]

Starfire had just flown out the side of their house with Control Freak, Robin had left the room quickly right after her exit, and the other three stood looking at each other. None of them knew how to cope with what just happened, but they all reacted in their own way. Raven always handled things alone, so she told her teammates, "I'm going to my room." And phased through the floor. She appeared in her room, where she remained until Beast Boy's alert told her she was needed to take care of Robin in the infirmary. She was glad that he also added that it wasn't a serious injury, because she didn't know how well she would have handled the news if he had left that out. Before she got Beast Boy's alert, she sat in the middle of the floor in lotus position, and focused on exactly what happened.

She needed to confront whatever emotions were to come to her and deal with them immediately, or risk the consequences of repressing them. She didn't want a repeat of what happened after Wicked Scary. Not knowing where to start, she began with the good.

She remembered the time when Starfire first meditated with her, and held onto the bliss of such happy energy next to her. She thought of her friend dragging her to the "mall of shopping" and her own feigned hate of the trip, and held on to the delight of seeing her so fascinated by mundane. Then, came the time when they switched bodies and had to learn everything about each other, and she held onto the peace of telling someone about her life for the first time. in her life.

Knowing that this wasn't the point of her being here, she shifted to more serious emotions that bubbled inside of her. She brought out every dark emotion she was feeling in order to feel each one directly. She felt her anger at Starfire for breaking a criminal out of jail, and then leaving the team to keep him out of it. She felt the grief of seeing the one person she considered a sister leave. She felt the fear of not knowing if she would see her again, or at the least, a very long time. Worst of all, she felt the the combined anger, grief, and fear of knowing that she might one day need to fight her. She took these feelings, and recognized their existence and accepted them.

After accepting her anger, grief and fear, she did not feel better. She never did after accepting her emotions; she always felt worse, but Raven also knew that not doing this could have disastrous consequences. She just sat on the floor feeling a gnawing pain everywhere, but her communicator buzzing distracted her for a moment. Seeing that she was needed in the infirmary, and she had finished her work, she got up and left to go there, choosing to walk rather than teleport. At the moment, she did not trust her powers.

[Back to right after Raven phased back to her room]

Cyborg and Beast Boy looked at the spot that Raven just disappeared from and stood in silence. Three of their teammates had quickly left and they were both frightened about how bad things looked right now. Slowly, they shifted their gaze to the mess in front of them. Broken glass and a few pieces of steel here and there were scattered throughout their entire living room. Cyborg was the first to move and start picking up the pieces, and Beast Boy flowed shortly after. It wasn't two minutes before before cut his hand on a piece of glass.

"Aargh! It's the little cuts that hurt the most!" Beast boy yelped as he shook his hand in pain.

"How did you even manage to pull that off? You're wearing gloves?" Cyborg asked as he dumped the handful of glass into the trashcan they set down next to them to shorten the trips.

"I don't even know, dude!" Beast Boy replied as he took off his glove and inspected the wound.

Cyborg managed to let out a ghost of a chuckle at his friend's antics. He appreciated the busy work to keep his mind distracted. It's why he always would tinker with the T-Car. He used it to get his mind off things when everything got complicated. Right now, he wanted to think about anything other than just what happened. He focused on picking up the shards of glass carefully instead. Working on the T-Car was a perfect escape, because it took a lot of concentration and brainwork to work on it, making it a great distraction. This was too easy and left his mechanized mind free to roam. He worried about how Starfire would manage out there by herself, but reminded himself that she could take down a T-Rex with her bare hands (It was a rainy day, and was indeed Beast Boy's idea). She would do just alright by herself, but he couldn't say the same for Control Freak. He thought about how much the team is going to fall apart now that they were divided like this. This wasn't the first time someone walked off the team, but it was far more violent and tense than when he had himself.

Lost in thought, it took him a second to realize that all the large pieces were picked up, only leaving vacuuming and the replacement of the window. Cyborg watched his friend struggle to pick up a speck of glass off the floor and decided to relieve him of his work. "Thanks for the help with the mess, BB, but I'll take everything from here." He also wanted a little bit of alone time as well.

Beast Boy looked up from the ground, and gave a very small smile. "You got it dude. I'm gonna go for a little walk around the tower."

"Do what ever you need to, but stay outta' Raven's room, okay?" Cyborg asked, making sure there won't be another melt down.

Beast Boy turned around, and backpedaled through the door pointing finger guns at his tall metal friend and replied, "No promises." But the door shut before Cyborg could yell a response.

Beast Boy wondered the halls not knowing where to go. He drifted from room to room, just as something to do while he thought. He was not worried as Cyborg was, or pondered what the future held like Raven; he thought about what the Tamaranean had done and wondered if it was the right choice or not. He too thought that Control Freak was innocent, but like he told the girl himself, he wasn't going to go that length to help him. On one hand, he knew Starfire was right and was justified for saving an innocent man's life. On the other, she broke the law, and is probably going to become a wanted fugitive in the near future.

Beast Boy stopped walking and put a hand against his head, saying aloud even though he was alone, "Woah, that was a lot of thinking right there. I'm gonna need a good thinking spot to figure the rest of this out. But where would that be?"

He stood and rubbed his chin as he thought about his options. Again he voiced his thoughts, "Cyborg's got the couch, my room's too dirty and cramped, the roof has too much noise, the basement's too dark and freaky…" Beast Boy paused completely out of ideas, but then it hit him. "Ah-hah! I Got it! The safe room we built for Raven! Worked good as a thinking room last time, it'll be perfect for a good think this time."

[Present Time]

All the Titans were gathered in the infirmary ready to hear Robin's words about Starfire. No one was surprised by their leader's announcement, they all knew it was coming. Robin faced his team, and looked at them. He compared their demeanor to what it was that morning. Cyborg was visibly worn down despite having not exerting much effort lately. Today's hardships shown on the face of his mechanical friend. His shoulders hung much farther forward than usual and his head hung low. There was no trace of a smile on his face, which almost never happened. Cyborg never really dipped below content, which made him the team's constant in a way. Now he just looked tired, and completely run down. Robin could have sworn that he was glowing at his normal level of blue.

His gaze shifted to Raven, and immediately noticed the change in her eyes. They were always alert, but now they had a distant look to them. He saw slight movement in her jaw, and thought she was probably chewing the side of her cheek in apprehension. Even though they had been in the tower for quite some time, she still had her hood drawn, and instead of letting her cloak drift around her, she held the edges tightly. Robin could see her wanting to keep secluded in the pain she was feeling.

His eyes drifted over to Beast boy next. His change was the most prominent. There were obvious bags beneath his eyes, his ears were unsurprisingly drooping, and he wasn't even a normal shade of green. It had an unhealthy yellow tint in it. He stared at the ground with a look on his face that made it seem he was dead to the world. The only movement was a slow blink every now and then.

Robin knew he wasn't looking too hot himself, and looking at his team confirmed it. After watching his teammates for just a few moments, he began, "Today, has been the worst day I can remember in a long time."

It sparked a day to compare to today in everyone's mind. Beast Boy thought of Terra's betrayal, Raven thought of ending the world, and Cyborg thought of the day Gizmo trashed his baby.

"Now we're all dead tired, so sleep is of the up most importance right now. I know it may be difficult, but we all need to try. I think all planning on what the next step should be with Sta-" but he couldn't finish, so he opted for a different name. "Control Freak should be done tomorrow after we get some good sleep. Do any of you have any problems with that?" They all shook their heads. "Then I recommend we all head to bed now."

Robin started to leave, but noticed none of his teammates moved a muscle. He looked at them and raised an eyebrow. Beast Boy raised his hand.

"Uh, Beast Boy." Robin said as he pointed to him, but was confused why it was necessary to raise his hand.

"So it's gonna sound dumb, but do you guys wanna all sleep on the couch tonight? I think it might help us get to sleep." Beast Boy asked as he rubbed the back of his head.

Cyborg was the first to respond, "I can bring down a portable charger from my room easily and set it up next to the couch. I think I'd actually like that, being next to you guys tonight."

Robin thought it over. Being in the same room as his friends seemed like a comforting idea to him as well. "Yah, I think it could be a good idea."

The group of boys all looked to Raven to hear her answer. "Pass." Was all she said as she walked out the door. Right before it closed, she heard Beast Boy, "Alrighty then. I guess it's gonna be a guys night."

She walked to her room and got ready for bed, not really paying attention to her nightly routine. She just wanted to get in bed as fast as she could. When she finally did, she laid down in an extremely comfortable position. The temperature was perfect, the sheets were so incredibly soft, and sleep felt like it was miles away. She laid still for five minutes, but saw that trying was quickly becoming pointless. She slowly began to think back to rest of her team on the couch. She scolded herself mentally, saying, _Don't be ridiculous, Raven! You're perfectly capable of falling asleep here in your room!_

She laid still for another five minutes, nowhere closer to sleep. She glanced to her side at her cloak. This time she was a little more open to the thought of sleeping on the couch. _It seems completely logically that I could sleep better in a room of friends, but then again, it also shows weakness._

She laid still for maybe thirty seconds more. _Azar!_

She got up, adjusted her cloak around her, and phased down into the living room. She first noticed Cyborg's newly constructed window and couldn't even tell it had been completely destroyed just a little while ago. Next, she saw the boys were almost perfectly spread out on the couch, but there was just a little more room right next to Beast boy. She crept up next to him, and looked at the sleeping changeling. There was just enough room for her to squeeze into. She bent down… and backed away, instead, opting to sleep in the recliner in the corner in the room. She was close to her teammates, but not that close.

She sat down in the recliner and shifted it to a more level position. She was fairly uncomfortable sitting in the recliner in the living room. It was slightly too warm, it was awkward sleeping in a slightly upright position, the material of the chair was a little rough, and she fell asleep almost instantly in the comforting presence of her friends.

After the empath fell asleep, the resident changeling popped an eye open to glance at her. He too struggled to fall asleep without the full team being present, but now felt much more relaxed. He closed his eye again, and the last thought that ran through his head before he fell asleep was what Starfire's sleeping arrangements looked like.

Across town, two figures approached the door to a worn down apartment with boarded up windows that had been closed for years. "It's no use, there's not gonna be a key lying around anywhere." One of the figures spoke.

His companion responded by placing a kick on the door that almost unhinged it, and entered without a word. The other soon followed, after shaking off his surprise. "So, now breaking and entering can be added to your list of crimes, Starfire."

The alien looked up at Control Freak and weakly responded, "Considering what else I have done today, I see this as an improvement. Let us see what beds this place contains."

Control Freak tried to shut the door, but with the way Starfire opened it, he ended up just shoving it against the frame until it got stuck in the closed position. After "closing" the door, he followed Starfire up the stairs. All the furniture was gone, except a ratty couch, and a torn up queen size mattress lying on a frame. They both surveyed their choices, and Control Freak called out, "Dibs on the bed."

Starfire shot him a look and he corrected, "On second the thought, I'll take the couch."

She walked over to the bed as Control Freak threw himself onto the couch. She laid down, and noticed how musty it smelled, but at this point, she was too exhausted to care. Before giving in to the numbing sensation of sleep, she said aloud to her fellow fugitive, "We sleep tonight, and plan tomorrow. Is that clear, Control Freak?"

"Crystal." And both runaways promptly fell asleep.

Night passed, and the Titan's, minus Starfire, were gathered in the living room, all still asleep for the most part. Beast Boy was just beginning to stir when he noticed the couch was oddly metallic. He opened his eyes and found that he had cuddled up to Cyborg in his sleep. He jerked his body off him and shot to the end of the couch, letting out a small squeal as he did so. Once he was separated, he heard a stifled chuckle from over in the kitchen. He turned to see that Raven stood watching him with a mug of tea in her hand, with a shadow of a smile on her face. Beast Boy got up from the couch, and quickly went over to Raven, with a smile shining on his face.

"Did you just laugh at something I did?" He asked in a voice that attempted to be quiet, but in his excitement was actually much too loud.

Raven raised an eyebrow at him and quietly monotoned back, "I would hardly consider it an accomplishment. I've watched you cuddled up next to Cyborg for the past five minutes, and then act like a complete idiot after waking up. I wouldn't say that's something to be proud of."

"So you were watching me then, huh, Raven?" Beast Boy asked with a waggle of his eyebrows.

Raven face palmed and replied in a voice full of sarcasm, "Exactly my point, Beast Boy. Now go away before I send a picture of you and Cyborg sleeping to every Honorary Titan on the roster."

Beast Boy laughed, "That's an empty threat. You didn't take a picture of us. I call your bluff!"

Raven produced her communicator with a picture of the two together out from under her cloak, deftly wiping the grin off Beast Boy's face. "Okay, I'll just go to the other side of the kitchen then."

Raven smirked at her small victory. As Beast Boy put together his vegetarian breakfast, Raven looked back at her other teammates. Robin had just sat up and stretched letting out a yawn. He got up and joined the other two in the kitchen. Raven looked at her worn down leader and asked, "How are you holding up?"

Robin grunted back, "I'll make it." And sat down at the table table. He looked at his friends and continued, "Once Cyborg wakes up, we'll start planning."

A loud ding was heard by all three of them near the couch, and they turned to see the cause of it. Cyborg's recharger shut down, and the owner started to pull out of his slumber/recharging state. He stretched and looked around him. It took him a second to remember he had slept on the couch that night. Seeing everyone awake and in the kitchen, he got up and went to join them.

Cyborg sat at the table with Robin, and was soon joined by Raven with her tea and Beast Boy with a handful of nuts. Robin looked at every one and began, "There's no point in putting it off, and we're all here now. Are you guys okay about talking about Starfire?" Everyone nodded back, so Robin continued, "The first order of business is to figure out what we tell the police, and maybe eventually the press depending on what we tell the police. We did ignore the crime alert last night, so they will all be wondering what the situation is. Should we tell them everything that happened, or wait to see how the situation changes first?"

Cyborg was the first to speak, "I think we should wait. Maybe Star will come back after blowin' off some steam, and we can return Control Freak to the police."

Raven followed up, "I agree with Cyborg. If we release all information now, we might cause panic in the city, and all criminals will want to start trouble, now that we aren't a full team."

Robin nodded at the excellent incite from his teammates, and looked at Beast Boy to hear him weigh in.

Beast Boy was feeling uncomfortable talking about such things and just replied, "Yah, sure."

Robin continued on, "I agree with this decision. Let's wait for now. Second order of business, how are we going to track down the two in the mean time? I don't feel comfortable just sitting around, and I would think that you guys don't either. My first thought would be tracking Starfire's communicator, but I think she's too smart to keep it on her. Can you pull it up Cyborg just to check?"

Cyborg reached over to his arm and started pressing on the touch screen on his wrist. After a few moments he reached the information he was looking for. He looked back at Robin and said, "Yup, you're right. She left it here in the tower. In fact…" He looked over his shoulder at the corner of the room. He got up and walked over to it, and reached down, picking up the communicator that he'd just zeroed in on. He turned around to face his team holding it up to show them, "She must have thrown it sometime during her exit, and Beast Boy and I somehow missed it cleaning up."

He walked back to everyone at the table and set Starfire's communicator next to Robin. Robin looked at it and said to everyone, "Okay, any ideas for a plan B?"

Beast Boy had an idea, but was really uncomfortable sharing it. In fact, the longer everyone talked, the worse he was feeling. In his nervousness, he raised his hand again in question.

Robin looked at him, "Beast Boy, you don't have to keep raising your hand. What is it? Do you have a plan? One that is physically possible of carrying out?"

Beast Boy lowered his hand saying, "Actually, I was wondering if we could clean up after sleeping. I don't think I'm ready to talk about this stuff yet." He was embarrassed for saying so, but he just wasn't feeling it. He had an idea of how to find her, but he couldn't bring himself to say it.

The team looked at him, and Robin spoke, "Okay, I guess we can take thirty or forty-five minutes to clean up and maybe get a little food too. Are you two okay with that?"

The other two nodded and they began to get up, but Beast Boy was the first up. he said a quick thank you and rushed out of the room. He ran up to his room and jumped into the bathroom. He placed his hands on the counter and looked at himself in the mirror. He was having a really tough time with all this. He could see how everyone else could do it, because they all thought Starfire was wrong, but Beast Boy saw things differently. He looked over at the shower next to him, and thought a quick, cold shower would help clear his mind. After an excruciating four minutes, he stepped back out and began drying himself off. It didn't help. He still felt just as confused.

He returned to his room and after getting into a new suit, began pacing around. How could he hunt down Starfire? She was literally and metaphorically a princess to him. She always was so righteous in everything she did; how could this new development be any different? After minutes of pacing he realized he needed an outside opinion, and he thought about his options. Cyborg didn't like to take sides in this case, and Robin wasn't the most stable right now. That left only one option, and he hoped it wouldn't kill him.

Across the hall, Raven just finished drying her hair when she heard a knock at her door. Now was not the time for a friendly chat; she hadn't even been able to get back into costume. She heard the person on the other side call out, "Raven? It's me, Beast Boy. I need to talk to you."

She wanted to talk now even less, now that she knew who was at the door. She approached the door, but before she shot him down, she got hit by a wave of emotion. There was a lot of confusion on the other side of the door. Along with inner pain, there was anguish and an overall fear of the future. She never knew Beast Boy could feel anything more than hunger, laziness, and a need to be the most annoying person he could possibly be, but there was so much emotion she couldn't turn him away right now. She muttered to herself, "I never thought I'd ever do this in my entire life." and cracked open the door an inch, and said through it, "Two minutes, and I promise I'll let you in."

He never got a response like that before. He wondered what was the difference was this time and stood there waiting. After two minutes and three seconds, the door opened to Beast Boy, and he gained entrance into the fortress known as Raven's room. He was still in shock that he was standing in it right now. Best case scenario was him being able to have a short muffled conversation through the door, so things were going well right now.

Raven could still feel his confusion, so she decided to jump right in. "There's obviously something that's really weighing you down right now, so just go ahead and tell me."

Beast Boy blinked back in surprise. Could she read his mind? He shook it off and followed her directions, diving right into it in just one sentence, "I think Starfire's right!"

It was now Raven turn to just blink back in surprise. She looked at her friend, "What?"

Beast Boy continued, "Control Freak was gonna get iced for something he didn't do, and Starfire did what she could do to save him. I have trouble picturin' me on a different side than Starfire, and me also thinkin' that she's right only makes it worse!" The longer he went on the more frantic he sounded and the wilder his gestures became. "This crazy Raven! I don't know what I'm suppose to do! You're one of the smartest people I know, you gotta help me!"

Raven was in shock. There was a lot of things that came out of Beast Boy's mouth just now, and she was having trouble figuring it all out. She took a deep breath and began, "No, you can't just justify breaking a criminal out of jail, even if it seems it is the right thing to do. I don't think there's even a debate if it is the right thing. Robin was pouring over every detail of what happened, and he found absolutely nothing to prove Control Freak is innocent, and we both know that Robin is the absolute best at finding evidence. Well, second to Batman, but that's still saying something." Raven finished, but realized she missed a complement that was thrown in at the end by Beast Boy, and added, "And Thank you."

Beast Boy gave a small smile, but it quickly left. "Why don't you think he's innocent? You saw how he acted, and can't you like read minds or something?"

Raven sighed. She thought the changeling might bring that up. "No, Beast Boy, I don't read minds. I'm an empath, which means I can feel other people's emotions. I'm not even well practiced at it, because I've been repressing my own emotions my entire life. I can only pick up strong emotions from people nearby."

Beast Boy looked back and asked, "But doesn't that mean you can still know if he's tellin' the truth or not?"

Raven shook her head, "No, I don't. Truth and deceit are not emotions. When we visited him in jail, I could feel panic, whether it was caused from being wrongfully incarcerated, or realization that he could be killed for murdering someone, I have no idea."

Beast Boy's ears drooped, as he deflated, "Well that's no help." He looked at Raven, and seeing her reaction, tried correcting himself. "Not you! You're being helpful, but I was hoping for a solid answer."

Raven still felt the sting of the words, but they were true. She thought back to all she felt recently. "Yah, it's not helpful, and it's also the reason I have trouble siding with Control Freak."

Beast Boy looked at her in confusion, so she continued, "I could feel how the crowd felt when we apprehend him at the art museum. I felt their panic, their disgust at the sight of the body, and their fear of them being next." Beast Boy was starting to understand. "I also felt the pain and anger coming off of Robin and Starfire, and it makes me feel terrible. That's why I have trouble siding with him, because I know how he's made everyone around him feel."

Beast Boy didn't know what to say. He was beginning to understand Raven's view though. He tried to show his comprehension of it, saying, "That's gotta be rough."

Raven nodded, and he thought it would be best to change the subject. "Do you think Star's gonna be back?"

Raven thought about it for a second, and then replied, "She might. I don't know how long she can last by herself with Control Freak."

Realization hit Beast Boy with that last sentence, and things seemed clear for the first time, "Yah, you're right Raven. Look I know things have been really tough for you lately, so I'm gonna leave you to be by yourself, cuz I know you like your privacy."

Raven smiled softly at Beast Boy in response. _Thirty-eight!_ he thought, as he turned around to leave. Raven called out to him to stop, and he did. "Don't do anything stupid Beast Boy."

Beast Boy laughed and rebounded back, "Tellin' me not to be stupid, is like tellin' you not to be sarcastic, it's just things we do."

Raven threw her arms up in mock surprise, "Woah, Beast Boy. Sarcastic has three syllables. Are you sure you can handle a word that big?"

Beast boy made a face back at her, "Exactly, my point!" he shot back. She smiled back at him, as he left saying, "Thirty-nine." Under his breathe.

Raven heard him whisper something and asked, "What was that?"

Beast Boy just increased his pace yelling back, "Nothing!" as he took off. He slowed down just after a little while, and thought to himself _Raven's right! Starfire's not gonna last long out there with just Control Freak for company!_ With that, he went back to his room.

An hour later, Cyborg, Robin, and Raven were all at the kitchen table waiting for Beast Boy so they could now talk. Robin checked the clock, wondering aloud, "How much longer is it going to take Beast Boy to get down here? We said forty-five minutes, and it's been over an hour. Should someone go check on him?"

Cyborg volunteered, "I got this, I think the little guy has had trouble picturing Starfire as a bad guy. I'll bring him back down in just a sec." Cyborg got up and ventured to his best friend's room. He knocked on the door multiple times saying, "Come on BB! We're all waitin' on ya' man. You've had enough time." He was only met with silence. Beast Boy had never ignored people at his door before, and it made Cyborg uneasy. "Okay, now I'm worried, so I'm gonna come inside, okay?" He opened the door to find the room empty, with the lights off. He turned them back on and immediately noticed a bright yellow communicator with a note next to it. He walked over to it, wondering why it was there and bent over to read the note. All the note said was, "Thought Star needed some company. Don't wait up for me during your meeting. We'll be back once we prove Control Freak's innocent."

Cyborg stared at the note in his hand with narrowed eyes and an open mouth. Did that mean what he thought it meant? Is Beast Boy leaving the team to help Starfire? Cyborg saw he left his communicator with the note, so he knew that the answer was pretty much a yes. He picked up the two items and left Beast Boy's room in small steps, staring at the two objects in his hands the entire way back to his other teammates. He tried to think as little as possible about what the situation now looked like, until he made it back to the kitchen.

Robin and Raven saw Cyborg enter the room. His brow was furrowed and his mouth was pressed into a grim line. They didn't speak, even when Cyborg made it to the table and deposited the two items on the table for the rest of them to see. Robin finished reading a second before Raven, stood up, and began to leave the room without saying a word. Raven finished, only giving a shocked gasp as a response. She looked up from the note and saw Robin about to leave. She phased through the floor and came back up right in front of Robin, putting her hands up in front of her.

"No, Robin, I'm not letting you break your hands against the punching bag again. You're staying here with us, and we are all gonna talk about this." Raven said sternly to her teammate.

Robin wanted to do anything but talk about it right now, but seeing that he'd have to get through Raven to do so, he turned and walked back to the table, muttering, "Fine." As he walked. Raven walked back right behind him and they all sat down at the table. Robin looked at his remaining two teammates, and said, "Okay then, let's talk."

On the other side of town, Beast boy was approaching an abandoned apartment as a Bloodhound, with his nose pressed against the ground. Still sniffing he walked up, to the front door and rose up on his hind legs, placing his front paws on it. Taking one last sniff and seeing the state of the door, he was sure he had found them. He transformed into an ant, and crawled under a crack in the door. Once getting through he transformed into a fly and flew around the residence, looking for his friend. He came upon her mid conversation with Control Freak, and decided to listen for just a moment before revealing himself.

"I am starting to think that I have made the wrong decision Control Freak. If I am the only one on this team that believes that this was the right course of action, I believe that I could have been wrong." Starfire said to her companion.

"Don't say that Starfire, I think you did the right thing!" Control Freak said not liking where this could end up. "I'm really happy that you do believe me, and I haven't even thanked you for doing that yet, so… Thanks."

Starfire smiled weakly at Control Freak but continued on, "I am comforted by your words, but if my friends are united in thinking that what I did was wrong, I see no other answer than-" But a third voice coming from the door interrupted her.

"Too bad not every one of your friends thinks your wrong, Star." Beast boy said while leaning against the door frame.

The two looked at Beast Boy, utterly shocked by his sudden appearance. It took a moment for what Beast Boy said to register. When it did, Starfire flew straight into Beast Boy, and yet again, embraced him in a bone crushing hug. Seeing how happy Starfire was, Beast Boy didn't mind how much it hurt to breathe right now. Starfire held him in silence, just enjoying the fact that she was no longer alone in her crusade.

She let go of Beast Boy and deposited him back on the floor, shouting loudly, "Oh, friend Beast Boy! I'm so filled with happiness that you have decided to join us!" Starfire said, but her gigantic smile soon disappeared as she asked, "You are joining us, yes?"

Beast Boy smiled back and said, "Yes I am, Star. Thought you could use a little extra company, and…" He reached for the very small, thin back pack he was wearing and opened it. "I thought you guys would be hungry too!"

He took out a bag of trail mix, two water bottles, and a package of cookies, and laid it out before the other two saying, "Sorry it's not much, but I can't carry anything too bulky while I shape shift. This stuff was already hard to carry."

Starfire couldn't care any less and was smiling from ear to ear. "It does not matter. This will be a wondrous meal, that you have provided!"

Control Freak was a little more judgmental of the choice, "You couldn't have brought any meat or something like that?" A glare from Starfire made him recant. "Actually, this is good just the way it is." He said with a nervous smile.

It had indeed been a while since the two had eaten, and they quickly dove in and began to devour all that was provided. Beast Boy had eaten before leaving, and was happy he made the decision to bring them food.

When all things edible were consumed, Starfire turned to Beast Boy asking, "How did you manage to find us Beast Boy?"

He blushed slightly before responding, "Well, yah see, don't take this the wrong way, but you smell differently than anything else on earth. I have a more sensitive sense of smell than the average guy, but when I transform into a Bloodhound, I could track you down anywhere in the city."

Starfire was not offended, but was rather intrigued by this. "What is it that makes me smell different?" She asked with a curious tone.

Beast Boy didn't expect such a question, so he paused a moment to think about it with his hand pressed against his chin. "It's hard to describe, but you don't smell like a human. At first I thought you smelled like Zorka berries, but once we went to Tamaran, I realized the whole planet smelled like that. It's not bad, just different. Like, you constantly have just a little bit of a rainforest like scent." Beast Boy said, hoping he didn't insult her.

She only nodded with a smile, so Beast Boy continued. "Raven's the same. She smells different than people too." Beast Boy paused and contemplated whether he should continue and decided he should. "Don't tell her this but she has, uh well, she kinda has a burnt smell to her. It isn't like a bad smelling fire. It's kinda more like a campfire. I always wondered why she smelled like that, but when Trigon came…" He paused again "It made sense."

He looked at Starfire and seeing her face, decided to end on a happier note. "Cyborg smells like a car and a human had a kid, and Robin I keep track of by the crazy amount of gel he uses in his hair. I mean, nobody uses as much hair gel as that kid."

The sound of Starfire softly laughing made him happy with his choice of finishing with their other two friends. He looked over at Control Freak, and had completely forgot about him being there as well. He thought it was better to just refrain from telling the man that he just smelled like he needed a shower because he needed to be on good terms with him, and showers were now going to be hard to come by.

Starfire's mood had improved a huge amount since Beast Boy's arrival, and was greatly encouraged by his appearance. She was enjoying herself now, but she also knew that planning what they would be doing in the future was also very important. She decided that now was a good time as any to start, so she began, "Now that you are here Beast Boy, we may plan about what is our next step."

[End Chapter]

And now our core team has officially been split. Will there be any more? You'll have to keep reading to find out! Are you guys enjoying it so far? Let me know! I'm having a lot of fun writing this, and I want to get you readers involved in this story as much as I can. Anything that pops in your head that you think would be a good idea for the story, write me a review! I'd love to hear it. Sorry about chapter 4 coming out all screwed up at first. I'm gonna make sure that won't happen again!

I think this chapter was A-Okay, was it Above Average in your book?


	6. Chapter 6

"Okay then, let's talk." Robin said.

The three Titans sat around the kitchen table. No one wanted to be the first to speak and talk about Starfire and now Beast Boy being gone. Robin sat with his arms crossed, glaring at the table. It was rather obvious that he was not happy to be there. Cyborg sat in his chair still in shock. He couldn't believe that his best friend had just up and left him and the rest of the team like that. Raven sat there and looked at the state of her other two teammates, and knew she was going to be the one that had to start the discussion. She didn't want to talk about her other friends at all, but she knew she had to do it.

"So, does this change the fact that we're waiting to give the police an update?" Raven asked her teammates. There wasn't a response for a few moments, but Robin eventually spoke up.

"I think now more than when it was just Starfire, we can't give an alert as to what happened. It's going to be open season if every criminal in Jump City knew what happened with the team. We're gonna need some temporary back up, while we're down members." Robin was straightening up in his seat and becoming more himself. Now that he could focus on a specific problem, he could put his pain behind him.

Cyborg was the next one to speak up. "I've talked to Bumble Bee recently, and she said crime is way down in Steel City. I think we could have some of them get over here for a bit while we sort this all out."

Robin liked the idea saying, "I think that's a solid next step to take Cyborg. After we finish here, I want you contact them and see how fast they can get down here."

Cyborg nodded and asked, "So do we just wait until then?"

Raven answered, "They're going to be looking to prove Control Freak's innocence, and when we talked to Control Freak in jail, Starfire mentioned the remote. That might be their first move: to secure that remote. We should alert security at the police station, so they aren't taken by surprise."

Robin nodded at Raven, but wanted to add to it. "I think you're right about the remote being their first move, but I think we should have the remote under our watch here at the tower. If some members of Titan's East are here as well, we should be able to take them in without much of a fight." Robin paused and looked at the faces of his teammates. "Hopefully, they'll give up with out the need to fight."

None of them liked talking about their friend's like they were enemies, but they all saw it as something that they had to do. They all took a very business like direction with how they approached the situation. It hurt less.

Cyborg thought of one more point that needed to be addressed and said, "Sounds good, but how are they gonna know we have the remote?"

Robin thought about it for a moment and answered, "While you're contacting Titan's East, I'll head downtown and see if the mayor would like to give another speech. Raven, you can come with me or stay here in the tower with Cyborg."

Raven still had mixed feelings about the mayor, so she said, "I think I'll stay here with Cyborg."

Robin nodded, stood up, and sent his teammates to do their tasks, saying, "Okay, you two contact The Police Station and Titan's East. Update me when you get a response from both, and I'll let the mayor know."

Robin had the urge to end his sentence with "Titans, go!" but it didn't feel right, so he left with without it.

In the abandoned apartment, another group of three started to make a plan. Starfire started it off, because it was her idea to begin making a plan. "We need to prove Control Freak's innocence as quickly it is possible. How should we do this?"

Beast Boy rubbed his chin. "Hmm, well you talked about his remote in jail, Star. We could go get that from the police station and then try finding the explosives."

Control Freak weighed in, "It would take a ridiculously long time to find it if we were to try, but it's better than being on the run for the rest of our lives."

Starfire tapped her chin and added, "I agree. We will be needing a plan to get the remote from the police, because I believe it would be unwise to construct a scene while retrieving it."

Beast Boy agreed, "Yah makin' a scene wouldn't be good. If everyone knew what the Titan's were goin' through right now, it wouldn't be good." He continued after thinking of a plan, "So if we wanna be quiet we should have Raven telep-" but stopped mid sentence. He forgot that they didn't have the full team this time.

His and Starfire's face fell as the reality of what they were doing came crashing down on them. This was the first time they had to do accomplish a mission without all members. Silence filled the room as they tried to think of something else that they could do by themselves.

Beast Boy tried again, "Well I could get myself in there, but I don't know how you guys would. Should I just go by myself?"

Starfire agreed. "I would not like you to go alone, but I think that may be our only choice. We will stay here while you go retrieve the remote. What time should you depart."

Surprisingly, Control Freak spoke, "You should wait till dark."

The other two looked at him questioningly. He shrugged back saying, "What? That's how every big heist is done in the movies!"

Starfire nodded. "The chance of you being caught would be less, friend Beast Boy."

Beast Boy saw no problem in that, "Okay, but what what are we gonna do till night?"

Back at the tower, Cyborg and Raven stood before a computer monitor that was currently reaching out to Titans East for a face to face conversation. Before contacting Titan's east they called the police station to make sure that they were able to take the remote to the tower for safe keeping. The police were just happy to hear from the Titans, and okayed it quickly, seeing the Titans could probably keep it safer than they could themselves. After doing so, they gave Robin the good news while he was on his way to see the mayor.

They now sat in front of their giant computer screen waiting for someone to pick up. They were both nervous about how the call would go. Raven wanted to go over what they could say, but Cyborg just wanted to wing it. Raven didn't feel like arguing, so she just went with it. After a few rings Bumble Bee picked up with a smile on her face.

"What's up good lookin'?" She asked the two, but when Cyborg opened his mouth to speak she added, "And Cyborg." Raven smirked as Bumble Bee laughed at the now embarrassed Cyborg trying to hide his blush.

"I'm just messin' with ya', Sparky! What are you guy's callin' about?" She said after a good laugh. She contoniued to laugh, but looking back at the two on her screen, she saw their grim faces, and cut off her laughter all together.

Knowing that it wasn't natural to be so glum, she added, "Did I catch you guys at a bad time?"

Cyborg coughed trying to prepare himself to talk. "Well no. It's just I remembered you tellin' me that things were good over in Steel City, and we were wondering if you guys could come by and help us out…" But Cyborg didn't know how to finish, so Raven finished for him.

"We need help with a problem, that requires a few more hands on deck." She said picking up after her metallic friend.

"Well, we do have Argent, Hotspot, and Wildabeast coming over later today to show them how we run the tower. It's just for a few days, so we can send you a couple of us over after we finish up with them." Seeing the darkened faces on her friends, she added, "Unless it's an emergency."

Cyborg nodded his head slowly. "Yah, you could say it's an emergency. We need help, well, tracking down Beast Boy and Starfire."

Bumble Bee's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh my God! Are they okay? Did something happen to them? Who captured them?" she fired off rapidly in surprise.

The Titans on the other side looked at each other before Raven answered. "Well, they weren't taken. They, um, they broke Control Freak out of jail and are on the run."

Bumble Bee almost fell out of her chair. "THEY WHAT?!" she yelled back in utter astonishment.

The two again looked at each other and Cyborg answered this time, "Yah, we had a dispute over his innocence, Star broke him outta jail, and BB just left to help her out just a little while ago."

Bumble Bee just stared back at them with eyes completely wide. She shook her head to bring herself out of the shock and responded, "Okay, screw having Argent, Hotspot, and Wildabeast over to teach them the ropes. I'm gettin' everyone in the tower together, we're sendin' a message over to those three to tell them their watchin' over the city, and were leavin' right now to get over there in Jump. We'll be there in three hours!"

The other two were stunned at the fiery response they received. Raven spoke up after a second or two of silence, "You don't have to do that Bumble Bee. You can't just leave them to watch over the city like that. We can wait a while longer, while you give them some instruction."

Bumble Bee blew it off, "They're big kids! They'll manage. The Hell you tellin' me to not rush? That's awful, havin' that happen over there in Jump! I'm gettin' the team together right now. See you in three!" Before the Titans could say goodbye, she had already ended the call.

The two blinked at the now blank screen until Cyborg spoke up. "Well that went better and worse than I expected. Let's give Robin the news."

In downtown Jump city, Robin was waiting to see the mayor at his office. He felt a buzz on his hip, and pulled out his communicator. He read Cyborg's message and muttered, "Three hours? That's pretty fast." While was still looking at it, a secretary approached him and said, "The mayor will see you now."

Robin looked up and put his communicator back onto his belt. He stood up and dusted himself off just to make sure he was looking presentable in front of the mayor of his city. He followed her back to the mayor's office and walked inside after she opened the door for him. The mayor sat at his desk with a wide smile on his face and welcomed Robin in heartily. "It's always good to have a resident hero come in for a visit. How are you doing, son?" He asked still holding a large smile.

Robin was caught off guard by the amount of positivity the mayor had. He wasn't currently in the mood to match his optimism, so he opted to get down to business quickly.

As he sat down in front of the mayor's desk he said, "Frankly, Mr. Mayor-" but the mayor cut him off saying, "Oh you don't have to be so formal. Go ahead and call me Bob. You're an important kid to this city, so I think you've earned that right."

Robin was again caught off guard from the man's response, but went with it all the same. "Well, Bob, things aren't going so well right now, and that's why I'm talking to you today." He said without much energy.

It didn't put a dent in the mayor's demeanor. "Well I'm glad you came by here to fix it. What can I do to help you, son?" He asked with the same large smile on his face.

Robin didn't know where to start, so he opted to check how much the mayor knew. "Do you know about Control Freak's escape from jail?" he asked bluntly.

The mayor nodded, saying, "Yes I do. The police informed me that someone came in and broke him out. Didn't do anything else, just came and got him in under three minutes. Caught the whole team on duty off guard." He paused and looked down at his desk before continuing. "They also informed me that, there was no response from the Titans, but there wasn't any extra trouble after the break out for them to deal with anyway." He looked back at Robin with a smaller smile this time and finished, "Now would that reason also be the reason why you've decided to pay me a visit here today?"

Robin had to give the mayor some credit on that one. He nodded back and said, "Yes sir it is. We did not want to respond to the police, because…" he paused not knowing how to go about saying it, "There's been a difficulty that has come up. We didn't want news to get out and cause a panic before we were able to get things back under control."

The mayor asked with an arched brow and a smile, "What kind of 'difficulty' has there been?"

Robin hesitated before responding, "Well, sir, we know who was responsible for the break out." The mayor waited with a smile for Robin to continue. "The perpetrator was Starfire, and we learned earlier today, that Beast Boy has left the team to join her." Robin finished.

The mayor looked back with even a smaller smile, his teeth now not even visible. "That is some troubling news." He took a deep breath and continued, "Is there anything you have done since the breakout to recover the inmate?"

Robin nodded grimly, "We contacted another team of Titans in Steel City, and they are on their way here now."

The mayor's smile grew in size when he heard the news, "I'm glad you kids had a plan ready to set in motion."

Robin had been trying to ignore it for the entire conversation, but he couldn't help noticing his mayor's reference to his and his team's young age. Robin shook it off as a generational gap thing, and replied, "Thank you, sir, but that isn't the only reason I'm here today. I was also wondering if you could help us bring this to an end?"

The mayor's smile was so wide that it threatened to tear his face in half. He was ecstatic that he was needed in the Titan's plan and replied, "I'll do what ever it takes to put this all behind us. Let's hear it, son!"

Robin continued, "We have talked to the police, and they have given us clearance to keep Control Freak's remote at Titan's Tower. We need you to publicly announce our plan to the people, so that it will draw our teammates and Control Freak to the tower, so we can put Control Freak back into custody."

The mayor nodded vigorously and replied, "Perfect! I was already planning on addressing the Control Freak incident later today, so I'll just add a little extra in about your plan. Is that all you need?"

Robin shook his head. "I believe that is everything." But Robin realized he had one more thing to add. "Actually, we also believe that there will be less panic if you abstain from mentioning that it was Starfire and Beast Boy that have helped Control Freak escape."

The mayor nodded with a smile, "That makes sense. I'll refrain from giving that particular information for now."

Robin relaxed as he saw that everything had gone smoothly. He got up and shook the mayors hand firmly. "Thank you for helping us with this Mr. Ma- Bob, it's been a pleasure." Robin said with all the politeness he could muster.

He got up and began to leave with the mayor saying, "The pleasure's all mine Robin." Robin opened the door of his office and walked out the door, leaving the mayor alone. The instant the door closed, the smile disappeared off his face and he muttered, "That plan better work."

Robin had left the building and messaged his teammates that the mayor was on board and giving a speech later that day to let the rogue Titans know they had the remote. Now all he had to do was swing by the police station to pick up the remote.

Beast Boy was also on his way to the police station. They had been sitting around doing nothing, and he had gotten restless. He convinced the other two that he needed to run a recon mission to scout out how he was going to steal the remote. He was on the way in the form of a dragonfly to avoid attention, and he knew they could also clock in at speeds of about thirty-five miles an hour, so it seemed the perfect choice. Robin's R-Cycle could easily break a hundred, so he was able to beat Beast Boy there. The changeling also left fifteen minutes before him, so Robin ended up beating him there by a very small margin.

After Robin pulled up and removed his helmet, Beast Boy turned the final corner and came across Robin right in front of the the police station. In his surprise, Beast Boy almost reverted back into his normal self, but just managed to keep it together. He wondered why the Boy Wonder was here, and thought the perfect way to figure out why was to hitch a ride. He flew in close to his former leader's head, and transformed into Pediculus Humanus Capitis, also known as the most common head louse. He landed securely into his former leader's head and wondered how much gel it took to keep his hair in place.

Robin entered the building with his unnoticed passenger and walked up to the front desk, saying, "Hey, I'm here for control Freak's remote. We contacted you earlier to make sure we could transfer it to Titan's Tower."

The man looked down at some papers, and seeing that he was correct replied, "Just walk through those doors right there, and someone will take you back into the evidence room. The entire walk back to the evidence room, Beast Boy was panicking from the top of Robin's head. He thought to himself, _Dude! How did they know we were coming for it? Is it that obvious of a first move? This is gonna be a lot harder now, tryin' to get it outta the tower instead of here! This is gonna take some crazy planning now!_

Robin had now arrived in the evidence room, and an officer took the remote out of the evidence box it resided in and gave it to the Titan. He was a curious guy, so he asked, "Don't think we can protect it here?" in a joking voice.

Robin responded back after a short chuckle, "No, I think you all are very capable of keeping this safe, but we need it for a plan."

Now the police officer was very intrigued, "Oh, a plan? That sounds interesting. Care to share it with a fellow man in uniform?" he asked with a raise of his eyebrows.

Robin, had seen the officer around before, and thought of him as a very good man, so he was happy to oblige. "We actually are using it to draw the people who broke Control Freak out of jail towards us, instead of having to go look for them. In fact, the mayor's giving a speech later today to announce it publicly, so the perpetrators know we have it."

Robin was going to keep going, but the police man stopped him. "Woah, watch out! There's a bee next to your head! Let me try to shoo it out." He said as he took off his cap and waved it at the bee. He was surprised how well it worked, because it took off fairly quickly. He put his cap back on and turned to face Robin again. "You were saying?"

Robin continued, "We're also bringing in more Titan's from another city to help us out, they're gonna be here in just a couple hours." But by the time Robin spoke, the bee had long since left.

The bee was flying as fast as it could to get away from the building. As it flew it thought, _Perpetrators! Is that what he calls us? I don't really know what that means, but I'm pretty sure it's bad. They're onto our plan though, I gotta get back to others and tell them!_

Beast Boy risked being seen and transformed into a bright green falcon, and took off in the direction of the apartments. He needed to get back as quickly as he could, and thought it was worth the sacrifice of stealth. While he was on the was, the two back in the apartments were actually having a nice conversation; the first since Starfire had broken broken Control Freak out of jail.

"So there is a whole fictional language that has been created for this show of television?" Starfire asked.

"Yah, it's called Klingon!" Control Freak responded excitedly.

Starfire had a look of amusement on her face as she said, "You humans make the most peculiar of things for entertainment. For entertainment on Tamaran, we go hunt wild Glak'or with nothing but our fists as weapons."

Control Freak looked at her in confusion. "And what do Glak'or look like?" he asked.

Starfire put a finger on her chin, "It is hard to describe, but I think there is much resemblance between Glak'or and ducks." She said after a moment of thinking.

"Oh…" Control Freak mumbled, caught off guard by how non-threatening her answer sounded.

"But they are the size of a car, have sharp teeth, and hunt in packs." She finished.

"Oh!" Control Freak answered in a much more surprised tone. That seemed much more difficult than what he pictured at first. "Well, that's completely terrifying." He finished with.

Starfire nodded, but before she could say anything, Beast Boy flew through the door with a loud bang.

He yelled in bewteen gasps of air, "Know we want remote… Took to Titan's Tower… Mayor giving speech about us…" and collapsed onto the floor, having finished delivering his message.

The two looked at each other, having no idea what Beat Boy meant, and Starfire knelt down to pick her friend off the floor. He was slowly bringing his breathing down to a normal level and started to put weight back onto his feet. A few moments later he began again, "I went to go scout out the station, and Robin was there when I showed up. I hitched a ride on his head, and he took me inside. The cops brought him back to the remote, and he said that the Titans were gonna keep it at the tower for this plan: the mayor's givin' a speech today, so we'd be tipped off that they have it. Then when we'd go get it from them, they'd be waiting for us."

Beast Boy sucked in deep breaths after talking for so long and breathing for so little. His other two companions' faces darkened when they heard the news. Now it would be pretty close to impossible to retrieve the remote. Then Starfire had an idea.

She asked her friend, "Did you say that they are using the mayor to tilt us into awareness?"

Beast Boy took a second for it to register what she was trying to ask, "Yah, they're usin' the mayor to tip us off about the remote. Why are ya' asking? We already know they have it."

Starfire grinned mischievously at him, "Then they would not expect us to come before he gives his speech then, yes?"

Realization donned on Beast Boy, and he smiled back. "You are one-hundred percent correct, Star." He knew that the Tamaranean was on to something with that.

Control Freak grabbed his two partners in crime and brought them into a huddle, saying "So here's the plan." The other two looked at each other and shrugged; they might as well hear it.

Back in the tower Robin had just finished putting the remote back in the evidence room. He saw his teammates sitting on the couch and decided to join them. He sat in between them and looked at the t.v. Cyborg had it on the local news channel, and was waiting for the mayor's speech to come on. They all just sat in silence, until Cyborg couldn't take it anymore.

"Alright, are we just gonna ignore the fact that Star and BB left the team? We only talk about like it's our job, and it is, but those guys are our friends dammit!" Cyborg said out of nowhere.

They weren't even phased by it, because they too were thinking the exact same thing.

Raven spoke up first saying, "If we just ignore the fact that we know them, it makes it less painful to be on opposite sides."

Cyborg fired back, "It doesn't even seem like we care!"

Raven turned and looked at her mechanical friend in the eyes. Her own were narrowed in anger. "I just lost the one person in the entire universe that I consider my sister, and another one of my closest friends I've ever had! I care so much, that it's tearing me up inside, so I choose to distance myself from the situation to make it hurt less!" Raven loudly responded back at a volume, that she pretty much never had used before.

They had all been under such stress that their judgment was a little impaired in all of them. Cyborg saw that he needed to back down, but Robin didn't.

"I couldn't tell." Was all he added, not even looking at Raven.

Raven almost lunged at Robin, but held back. Instead she just gave a short two word reply, "Excuse me?"

Robin now looked back with a deadpanned face, "Beast Boy goes and talks to you, and winds up leaving shortly after words. You barely have a response when we find out that he left. Just seems a little suspicious." He said without a hint of emotion in his voice.

Now, Raven was raised in the pacifist dimension called Azarath, and they spent years working on how to deny emotion, and instill their pacifist beliefs on her. Right now, all of it was out the window, and she never wanted to punch someone in the face more than right now. Cyborg saw the fire in the empath's eyes and chose to intervene. He quickly grabbed Robin, and lifted him off the couch and set him on the other side of his body, placing himself between the two.

"Alright, we've been through a lot lately, and we're all really wound up right now. Let's take a few breathes and calm down." Cyborg said as he sat in between his two teammates.

Cyborg was for the most part ignored by Raven as she leaned around him. "You stuck up, prideful jerk! You think that I'm in on it because I choose to repress my emotions? I'll let them loose to show you how bad of a thing that it would be! And, If I am recalling correctly, didn't Starfire talk to you right before leaving? What could you possible say to her that would convince her to break Control Freak out of Jail?" Raven spat out.

"I didn't say anything! I gave her the dictionary definition of 'right' and then she took off and freed Control Freak. Whatever it was that set her off, it wasn't me!" Robin fired back. He was now leaning towards the empath ignoring the fact that Cyborg sat between them.

Cyborg grabbed both of them by their collars and pulled them back to keep them from killing each other and yelled, "Enough! We all loved those guys to death, and none of us had anything to do with why they left. I lost my best friend I've ever had and the most kind, perfect girl on earth that I'm lucky to be friends with. We all care about them deeply, and the stress is makin' us want to rip each other apart. We're all sayin' things we don't mean, and you guys know it. We gotta stay strong in this and stick together, you two."

Both Raven and Robin calmed down, realizing how idiotic they were being. They glanced at each other and just settled back down on the couch, both muttering apologies under their breath. Taking advantage of the situation, Cyborg put his arms around the other two. They both bristled at first contact but eventually settled down.

Cyborg added, "And Titans East is coming and I don't wanna look bad in front of them." With a smile.

He got a roll of the eyes from Raven, and Robin shook his head. They didn't say it, but they were really glad Cyborg was there for them, to be their rock.

As the three Titans sat on the couch, three more people landed silently on the roof. They silently moved over to a vent on the roof and Beast Boy transformed into a fly to travel through it. He flew through the vents and came out in a hallway somewhere near their rooms. He flew back towards the roof, and found the door that led up onto it. He transformed back into human form, and placed his hand on the palm reader, hoping Cyborg hadn't updated the system yet. It glowed green and the door opened, and Beast Boy gave himself a high five mentally.

The other two quickly and quietly rushed in and Beast Boy closed the door. They paused a moment to see if an alarm went off. When none did, Control Freak whispered "Phase two" and the group moved on. They moved to scout the evidence room first, as it seemed to be the most logical place to put it. When they arrived, they were relieved to see they were indeed correct. Hiding place number two was Robin's room, and the chance of getting in there quietly would have been as close to zero as you could get. Walking in, Control Freak whispered, "Phase three." They're relief was short lived, because as they approached the remote, they saw it was in a secure glass case that was locked down tight. They saw that one needed a code to open it, and they all looked at it for a while thinking what it could be.

"Do you think Cyborg or Robin set this up?" Beast Boy whispered to Starfire.

Control Freak responded instead. "The high tech aspect of the case would support Cyborg, but this is extra precautions added on as another layer of protection, which overwhelmingly points to Robin. Now, he'd go for something obvious at first like 'Starfire', but change his mind to something a little less obvious to everyone, but more obvious to him. My guess would be 'Batman', but he's Robin, so he'd add a little extra. When adding on extra things to make a password, numbers are the most likely choice. You guys are a team of five, so he'd go for a number like that, but try to be more complicated so my guess would be either '55' or '15'. He's not one that likes to be redundant, so I'd go with '15'. He'd want to add one more element just as one extra safety measure, and it would most likely be punctuation. He's a confident man who likes ordering people around, so I'd go with an '!' giving us a total password of 'Batman15!'."

He reached forward and entered his guess into the lock. Everyone held their breaths as they waited to see if it worked. After three seconds, the lock glowed green and the box opened. Beast Boy and Starfire stared with mouths wide open at Control Freak. He picked up his remote from the case and turned to leave, but the other two just stood in place, still not able to overcome their shock. He watched the two and finally gave in saying, "What? I'm a big fan of you guys! You think I do this just to steal nerd stuff? I mean, I like doing that, but I'm in it mainly to be known as a villain of the Teen Titans."

Beast Boy finally was able to respond, "If that doesn't prove you're not a murder, I don't know what will." Starfire nodded slowly in reply.

Control Freak sighed, grabbed their arms, and gave them a quick tug to get them moving. After they were on their way, he whispered "Phase four." as they went. They decided before hand that they'd leave through the ground floor, back entrance, so they headed off in that direction. They moved silently and quickly as they could. As far as they could tell, their presence here in the tower went completely unnoticed. They eventually made it to the door, and could taste the success of stealing something from one of the most secure places in Jump City. Beast Boy couldn't help but feel ecstatic about pulling off what they had just done as he palmed the door open. He was about to congratulate his team about their success when the door opened. In front of them stood the entire Titans East team.

They were equally surprised in seeing each other.

Bumble Bee was the first to speak, "Uhhh, Freeze?"

[End Chapter]

There you have it! Too much of a cliffhanger? I thought I've been having nicely wrapped up ending almost for every chapter, so you guys can handle this one. How's the chapter? I laughed when I saw your comment, Apologetic. I had this already written down by then, and I thought this would answer your question. Also, I'd like it if anyone would like to tell me something I can improve on! You don't even have to be nice about it, in fact, the more creative and colorful the insult, the better it could be. As long as you're specific, and I can improve in that area. You know? Like a plain, "You suck!" Can't really improve on that, but if you say, "You diseased cheese stick! Do you possibly think I'd be able to follow this rambling dialogue? I say good day, sir!" I can take that to heart and work on smoother dialogue. You game?

I liked this chapter a whole bushel full, but was it indeed Above Average in your book?


	7. Chapter 7

"Uhhh, Freeze?"

Beast Boy shut the door immediately after hearing Bumble Bee's uncertain order. He turned back around and faced his two fellow law-breakers.

"Titans East?!" Beast Boy practically yelled, "What are they even doing here?!"

"I do not know, but we must find another exit; they are five strong, and we are only two." Starfire said quickly, trying to figure out what they should do.

"Five on the three!" Control Freak angrily corrected as the they all took off the opposite way down the hall.

Outside, Titan's East looked at each other in confusion. They had been called down to a different city to hunt down two of their friends. Once arriving those same friends just opened the door to them. They had the right to be confused as they were at the moment. They just blinked at the now closed door and stood in silence.

Speedy was the first to speak. "Okay, you guys saw that too, right?" he asked his teammates.

Aqualad answered, "Yah, but aren't they supposed to be hiding out somewhere in the city?"

They all took their eyes off the door and looked at each other in confusion. Bumble Bee nodded saying, "That's what they told me, but I have no idea what that was about."

She decided that they needed an answer from a Jump city Titan, and she took out her communicator and dialed up Cyborg. He picked up almost immediately saying, "Hey Bee, you guys here?"

Bumble Bee nodded, "Yah, but…" she paused, puzzled about how to move forward, "Have you guys, uh, already caught BB and Star?"

Cyborg replied, "Of course not, that's why we called you guys." In a perplexed tone, wondering why she even had to ask.

"Well you see, they're kinda in the tower right now." Bumble Bee said scratching her head.

"WHAT?!" Cyborg yelled back in surprise. "I need to put the tower on lock down ASAP! Get your team in here now!"

He ended the call before he heard Bumble Bee yell back, "Wait! You need to let us in!"

She sighed and look at the speedsters. "Mas y Menos run around front, open window, or really anything and open the door for us."

They replied with a, "Si Señorita!" and took off around the tower. Two seconds later, the door opened, and the Titans East entered the tower. They looked around for the three they had just seen, but found the hallway completely desolate. Seconds after entering, the door slammed shut and sirens began blaring throughout the tower.

In the living room, Cyborg had just jumped off the couch, after sitting still momentarily in shock, and punched in the code to go into lock down. Blast shields shot down over the giant windows of the living room, cutting out all natural light. All other lights were shut off, so the only source of light were the pulsating, red, emergency lights. Robin and Raven didn't catch much of his conversation with Bumble Bee, so they were rather confused by Cyborg's antics and what in the world he just did to the tower. He had just shouted at his communicator, crossed the entire living room to the control pad, and entered in the lockdown protocol (which was seventeen characters long) in under five seconds.

As a burst of sirens echoed over the living room, Robin attempted yelling over them to his mechanical teammate. "What are you doing Cyborg?"

Cyborg turned around and frantically yelled back, "They're already in the tower! BB, Star, and Control Freak, they're here now!"

Raven and Robin stared back with wide eyes for a moment, before Robin shouted, "We have to find them. Titans go!" All three left the room as fast as they could, to find the trespassers.

The three trespassers huddled in one of the unused rooms in the tower. After running around, having absolutely no idea where they would go, they opted to settle in an extra room to come up with a plan and catch their breath. Once gathering in the room, they too heard the alarm going off and knew that things were going to get a lot more complicated.

Once the alarms finished blaring, Beast Boy uncovered his ears and said to his two companions, "Well I think they know we're here now."

Starfire grabbed the two boys with her by the shoulders and brought them close to her so she could look them in the face. "We are in procession of what we came here for; all that is left for us to achieve is leaving. Stay close to me and we will make it out." She said fiercely to them.

Starfire's sudden energy and determination focused both of them and they both nodded. The group left the spare room in a tightly packed formation, watching all sides for any other Titans looking for them. As they started moving Control Freak whispered, "Emergency phase five."

The lockdown had dimmed all but the emergency lights, making the hallways much darker than usual. They had to make it to any window, so Starfire could rip the blast shielding off the wall, and they could all make their escape. They started off almost at the heart of the tower, but things were going well; they hadn't stumbled across another Titan the entire time since the back door incident. They kept moving forward until came across a blind corner, and Starfire slowed down to peaked around it, but Beast Boy kept walking, confident that there wasn't anyone around. She quickly grabbed Beast Boy by his collar and pulled him back beside her. Before he could protest, she put a finger over her lips and pointed. Beast Boy turned around to see that Aqualad was standing at the other end of the hall. After Beast Boy silently mouthed an apology, they backtracked and headed in another direction. Things went quiet again for a few more minutes, without any problems coming up. They approached another corner, and this time, Beast Boy paused first to look around. Seeing the hallway clear he signaled his team forward. Once stepping out into the open, Bumble Bee and Speedy walked around the corner at the other end of the hallway, and the two instantly drew their weapons.

"Okay. We don't want to fight you guys, just give up and nobody gets hurt." Speedy said with an arrow drawn. Both had no intention of causing lasting damage, so Bumble Bee's stingers were set to stun, and Speedy used non lethal arrows used to stun as well.

Beast Boy and Starfire looked at each other and then took off dragging Control Freak with them. Both Titans East members fired, but both shots landed high. The projectiles hit just right on a support beam of the ventilation system, bringing it crashing down towards the three fugitives. The explosion above Starfire, caused her to let go of Control Freak. Once the dust settled, she found herself separated from the other two. Knowing that the other two were closing in fast, she made a quick change of plan.

She knew she didn't have enough time to make a way through for the other two, so she instead lunged toward the mess of vents before her and yelled through, "Meet in the room of living!" Not pausing to wait for a reply, she took off in the direction of the living room.

On the other side of the vents, Bumble Bee and Speedy were closing in on the other two ready to fire again. Beast Boy leaned close to Control Freak and whispered, "You heard her."

He simultaneously transformed into a horse and slid under Control Freak in one fluid motion, and the two took off with Control Freak riding on Beast Boy's back. He zigzagged as he ran down another hallway dodging both Speedy's arrows and Bumble Bee's static bolts. The two were excellent shots, and Beast Boy was having a difficult time dodging shots with such a heavy passenger, but was just managing to do so. He knew he wouldn't last long, so he turned a few corners, successfully cutting the line of sight fro his pursuers.

Just when he thought he got away, a flash of white and red zoomed past him from behind. It turned around around and then came straight for him, and Beast Boy braced for impact. It never came. He went to speed up again, but noticed he was already running faster due to a decrease in weight. He jammed his hooves into the ground, and spun around to see the two speedsters holding Control Freak to the ground. Control Freak yanked an arm loose and reached inside his jacket. He pulled out his remote and threw it to Beast Boy yelling, "Get to Starfire!"

Beast Boy caught the remote in his teeth and took off again with a silent apology to Control Freak for leaving him behind. He ran at full speed until he reached the living room, but he entered to find it completely empty. He reverted back into his human form and spat the remote out into his hand. He looked around the vacant room, wondering where his other teammate was. In between breathes he spoke to himself saying, "Come on Star. Where are you?"

Out from behind him, a figure appeared out of the shadows with a pale hand outstretched. Beast Boy suddenly felt constricted and tried to move to escape, but found he could not. He looked down and saw his entire body covered in black energy. Seeing the dark energy, he knew there was no escape and gave no attempt.

Knowing that Beast Boy couldn't turn to look at her, she stepped into his field of vision with her hand still stretched out, now glowing with dark energy. "Hello Beast Boy." She said to him.

Beast Boy didn't like the position he was now in, "Uh, hey, Raven." He looked back down at his trapped body and finished, "Could ya' let me go? I kinda need to escape when Starfire gets here."

Raven responded with a slap across the face. Hard enough to get his attention, but not enough to leave a hand print or lasting pain.

"I can't believe you did this Beast Boy. I told you not to do anything stupid and you end up doing the most idiotic thing you've ever done in your life, and that's saying something. You do know that you're probably going to go to prison for a while for aiding and abetting, right?" Raven said with little emotion in her voice but fire in her eyes.

Beast Boy just looked back into her eyes and said, "Some things are worth risking prison for, Raven." In a quiet voice.

That made her anger fade. Her eyes relaxed, and she opened her mouth to speak, but Titans East entered toting Control Freak in handcuffs behind them. In one motion, she turned to face the incoming Titans and removed the remote out of Beast Boy's hand.

Aqualad was the first to notice the two occupants and called out, "Hey, good job Raven! You got him one on one, took those four to catch Control Freak."

Bumblee Bee bent an eyebrow at Aqualad and sassily responded, "At least we did something! You haven't done anything since we got here, Mr. Fish-Whisperer!"

The Titans East team snickered as Aqualad ducked his head with a tinge of red on his cheeks, but the others remained silent.

After finishing their short laugh, the twins looked around and asked, "Donde esta Starfire?"

In another part of the tower Starfire stood across from Cyborg. They both stood with a hand raised, one glowing green and one glowing blue. Neither wanted to make first move. They stared at each other, waiting for the other to attack. They were both completely tense like a spring ready to fire out at any moment. Cyborg knew things wouldn't go to well for him in a one on one with the alien princess. He knew he was strong, but saw that he was greatly outmatched. He also knew that he couldn't just let Starfire walk out and leave without resistance. He thought that maybe another alternative might be more suitable than an all out brawl with Starfire.

Cyborg sought for a peaceful ending and called out, "I know neither of us want to go at it, so lets just talk this out."

"There is nothing to talk about. I seek to free us from the tower, and you seek to stop me." She replied with an intense look.

Cyborg sighed. "Don't make me do this, Star." He said with his cannon still raised.

Starfire took a different approach. She lowered her hand and began to walk forward, keeping eye contact with her friend as she moved. "I am not making you do anything, friend Cyborg. I am leaving, and that is all I will do."

Cyborg took a step forward and yelled, "Stop!"

Starfire kept walking and said, "I will not."

She refused to raise her arms in a defensive position. She walked with her arms at her sides at a slow pace. Cyborg kept his aim trained right onto her chest, but the Tamaranean kept walking.

He tried calling out again, "Starfire, stop, or I will shoot!"

She didn't even respond this time; she just held his gaze and kept moving forward. She had now moved up next to Cyborg and was now walking past him. Sweat beaded on his forehead with her feet away from him. The whole time he kept his cannon trained on her, but he could not fire. She was his friend, and he couldn't willingly hurt her without her fighting back. She was now yards away and still moving farther way with each step. He cursed himself as she disappeared down the dimmed hallway. She kept walking in the direction of the living room, and had almost reached her destination when she came across her last obstacle. Robin stood in front of her with his arms crossed.

His eyes were narrowed as he spoke, "I know Cyborg let you walk by, but I can't let you go in there."

Starfire didn't even falter in her walk towards the living room. She walked up to him with the same intensity with her eyes and said, "Stop me."

She turned away from him and took a step past her formal leader, and he grabbed her arm.

She whirled around on him with her hand clenched into a fist and threw it at Robin. Starfire din't hold back with her punch she threw, and with that power, it could very well kill Robin. Her hand less than an inch away from his nose. She couldn't do it. She let him make the first move so that her strike was justified, but she still couldn't bring herself to do it. He was still Robin, and she would never be able to hurt him. They stood still with Robin holding onto Starfire's arm, and her fist centimeters from his face. Eventually, Starfire slowly dropped her arm away from his face, but Robin still held onto her arm.

She finally understood. Robin would not let her go without a fight, and she could not fight him. There was only one way this could end. She brought her hands together in front of her with her wrists touching and said, "Do what you must."

Robin walked into the living room with Starfire in very heavy duty handcuffs and Cyborg shuffling in behind them. Both the Titans and Titans East watched in silence. No one saw dents in Cyborg or cuts and bruises on Robin, so they all knew the Tamaranean submitted willing. As the Titans East approached the new arrivals, Cyborg moved away from the two he entered with, and saw Beast Boy held captive by the empath. He decided he wanted to talk to his best friend, but he no idea what he could possibly say. His best friend had denounced the team, and they were now on opposite sides of the playing field. He knew it could be awkward, but he didn't care. He just wanted to talk to his friend.

"Hey there BB." Was all he started with.

Beast Boy saw his best friend and smiled weakly. "Hey Cy. How's life been without me?"

Cyborg sighed and responded slowly, "Pretty bad. Everyone's on edge, and it's been pretty boring, without you here, little man."

Raven, who had to be nearby to keep the shape shifter restrained, chimed in, adding, "I've been enjoying the quiet."

Beast Boy deflated, until he saw that she said it with a very slight smile. Cyborg added on to the teasing saying, "It has been nice not smelling that garbage you call 'tofu' everyday."

Beast Boy still managed to smile and replied, "It's okay dudes, I know you guys missed me."

Cyborg laughed and said, "You know it." Remembering that Beast Boy was now headed off to jail, his smile disappeared. He added, "Don't worry man. We'll make sure that you and Star aren't gonna be locked away for a long time. The city loves you guys, and we'll all speak for you. You might even just be put on parole. We won't let anything bad happen to you two."

Beast Boy was thankful for his best friend still watching out for him and loved him for doing that. He also remembered that it wasn't just two of them. "What about Control Freak?" he asked.

Cyborg could only drop his gaze. Beast Boy knew that he hadn't been able to save Control Freak, so he knew he wouldn't stop fighting until he did.

In all the rush that had happened, the Titans never turned the t.v. off before putting the tower on lock down. It was mostly ignored by everyone now that they were gathered in the living room. Avoiding Beast Boy's gaze, Cyborg noticed that the t.v. just cut to a shot of the mayor and knew that he was just delivering his speech. He grabbed a nearby remote and turned the volume up. Every one quieted down as the mayor began speaking

"Hello my fellow residents of Jump City. I'm sure by now that you have heard that Control Freak has escaped form jail before his trial could be held. Do not fear, my fellow citizens. We are working around the clock to recapture the villain in order to have him face justice."

Applause filled the speakers as the Titans East asked about who was speaking. Answers were quietly given as the mayor continued.

"I have good news to tell you. The Teen Titans have moved the villain's remote to their tower for safe keeping, so that he cannot use the device to cause more harm to our city. They have also contacted fellow superheroes, and they are on their way right now, to help keep our city safe." More applause. "Now I must caution you to still be vigilant about the perpetrators that have released Control Freak are very dangerous, and are still out there. We must stand together as a city, and show them that we are not afraid. As an act of defiance to these villains, the courts have called for hearings for villains we already have in our custody. They were held earlier today and they have found Otto Van Furth, known as Plasmus, Sebastian Blood, known as Brother Blood, and Arthur Light, known as Dr. Light, guilty and sentenced to death."

As the crowd applauded, the Titans began to erupt, but they were cut off by the mayor.

"But! These new villains will try to release these villains back onto the streets of Jump city."

Beast Boy shouted, "Damn right!" The mayor, who was across town, couldn't hear Beast Boy, so he continued.

"With the threat these new villains pose, the courts have now passed my new Bill in which the verdict of these trials will be carried out immediately in order to avoid having these already sentenced villains freed."

He let the silence sit as the crowd processed what he had now said.

He continued proudly, "My people of Jump City, Plasmus, Brother Blood, and Dr. Light are no longer among us, but have passed on into the afterlife."

As the crowd met the mayor with thunderous applause, all hell broke loose in Titan's Tower.

"You can't still believe this guy is still good." Beast Boy yelled as loudly as he could.

"He's still following the justice system; he's going through the courts and passing Bills! Of course he's still good!" Robin countered.

Starfire answered back, "He has killed three people in one day! Is this not evil?"

Raven responded at a quieter level, "Plasmus and Brother Blood are two of the most dangerous people that we have ever faced."

An outraged Beast Boy yelled back, "And Dr. Light?!"

No one responded.

They all knew he was one of the most petty villains they had ever faced, but now he wasn't even alive.

Bumble Bee finally spoke up, "Beast Boy has a solid point."

Still, no one would talk, and the Titans East members felt uncomfortable with all they had just witnessed. They knew that there was a division in the ranks, but seeing it for themselves was still a complete shock.

Aqualad spoke this time trying to change the subject, "We need to get these three back to the police station, but I don't think you guys should deliver them. We should take them."

Bumble Bee added, "Just Me and Speedy will take 'em. You three keep the others from fallin' apart." She shifted her gaze to Cyborg and finished, "We'll borrow the T-Car."

Cyborg only numbly nodded his head back and handed over the keys. He was usually adamant about not letting anyone drive his baby but him, but he was too confused and worn out to care at the moment. They all began to prepare the three for their transfer into police custody. Robin was still thinking back to Starfire holding back her punch and submitting without a fight. Cyborg tried as hard as he could to avoid thinking about how he was sending two of his friends into the hands of people who just killed three villains in an instant. Raven focused purely on the task of keeping Beast Boy restrained, but without him fighting back, there was much to do. She realized that they needed to find a different way to keep Beast Boy restrained, because she would not be joining him on his trip to the police station.

"Beast Boy needs a pair of handcuffs while he's taken to the station." she announced to no one in particular.

Beast Boy's restraints were switched to handcuffs that also disrupted his ability to shape shift. When they were put on him, and he tested his ability to shape shift, he questioned their origin.

"Why do we even have handcuffs that can hold me and Starfire?" he asked the crowd of Titans around him.

Robin obliged, saying, "I have handcuffs that can restrain all of us Beast Boy. It's a precaution incase we need them."

Beast Boy shook his head, "You really were trained by Batman."

Before they left, Bumble Bee turned to Raven and asked. "You guys want to keep the remote?"

Raven looked down to the remote in her hand from when she first took it off Beast Boy when she first captured him. She shoved it towards Bumble Bee and said, "I don't want that thing in the tower."

Bumble Bee accepted it, and her and Speedy led the three in handcuffs from the tower and into the T-Car. It was highly uncomfortable fitting the three handcuffed people into the back, even more so with their hands restrained. After several minutes of pushing and pulling by the two Titans escorting, they were finaly able to get all three inside the T-Car. They drove in silence for most of the way. None of the parties present wanted to bring up how much this would affect the Titans. Starfire was becoming more and more unsettled the farther they drove. It got to a point that she couldn't keep quiet anymore.

"Do you truly believe you are right in what you are doing?" She blurted out to the two in the front seat.

Speedy looked back at her and said, "Honestly, I think all these baddies had their chance to walk away so many times, I think this is the only way to actually get results."

Starfire shook her head. "You may be correct that it may deter those who are evil, but it cannot be done in this way."

Speedy shrugged, "It gets the job done."

Silence again reigned in the car for a time until Beast Boy spoke up this time.

"What about you Bumble Bee?" he asked in a quiet voice.

"I think the guy's a whack job and shouldn't be in office. No one should just have power like that to kill. Doesn't matter if he goes the the court system; It's still messed up." Bumble Bee angrily replied.

"Careful there, boss, you're sounding awfully traitorous." Speedy said with a laugh.

Bumble Bee nodded and pulled the car over, announcing, "We're here."

Speedy turned and looked out the window. He didn't see the police station anywhere in sight. In fact, he had no idea why they were on this particular side street. It was very secluded and from what he could tell, not that close to the police station.

After taking in his surrounds he said, "Uh, no we aren't. It's still like five streets down." while still looking out the window.

Bumble Bee responded with throwing a punch straight into Speedy's exposed temple, knocking him out cold with one punch.

After shaking out her stinging hand she said to the now unconscious Speedy, "This is your stop."

The other three in the back sat in silence. They were caught off guard by the sudden right hook that she just through into her teammates head. They all just looked at Bumble Bee with eyes wide and mouths hanging open. She looked back at them and said, "What? You guys are right, the mayor's a huge dick. Now, let me get those cuffs off you guys."

She first turned to Starfire and placed one of her golden stingers right on the key hole of her handcuffs. After setting in just the right position, she sent a small bolt of electricity down into it, blowing the lock open. She repeated the same process with Beast Boy's restraints and then Control Freak's. Once she freed the all three, she pulled out the remote and handed it back to Control Freak, saying, "I believe this is yours."

She got out of the driver's seat, but the others stayed seated in the back. Things had turned around so quickly for them, that they couldn't wrap their minds around it. They had been spending the past hour contemplating what prison would be like or hoping that the jury would find them not guilty, and now they were free once again. Bumble Bee tapped on the window to snap them out of the state of shock they were all currently in. Slowly, Starfire exited out one side and Beast Boy the other. Starfire noticed that Beast Boy left his handcuffs in the car and said, "Friend Beast Boy, take your cuffs of hand with you, so that it may not be used against you again."

Beast Boy nodded and returned to grab them. Control Freak exited out the other side without his, there really wasn't a point in keeping them. He joined the Titan's outside the T-Car and asked, "What now?"

She confidently replied, "Remember that I was in this city too before we all went to Steel City. I know a friend that will let us crash with her for a while. Now let's get going before Speedy wakes up."

Starfire looked back at the unconscious Titan and asked, "He will be okay, yes?"

Bumble Bee nodded and replied, "Yah, he'll be fine. I didn't hit him hard enough to do any permanent damage, and he'll call back to the Titans as soon as he wakes up. They'll come get him, and we should be as far away from this car as we can when they do.

The group of three followed Bumble Bee in the direction of her friend's house, happy to be free and still able to make a difference. Not being crammed so close to Control Freak was also a big plus.

Back at Titan's Tower, everyone was still gathered in the living room, and there was very little talking that was going on. Robin decided to sit and watch his fellow Titans in the room. Cyborg sat on the couch, not talking to any one else. He sat hunched over with his elbows resting on his knees and head resting in his hands. Robin knew he was thinking about a lot complicated things right now. He just sent his best friend to jail in a city that now readily kills villains in costumes, and Beast Boy fit in one of those two categories. He had been unable to stop Starfire and watched Robin's very tense confrontation with her as well. Now, she too was on her way to jail. His face might have been concealed by his hands, but Robin knew he wasn't looking well right now.

He looked at Raven who was reading a book at the other end of the couch. She seemed to be acting normal to anyone, but Robin could see her tenseness. She gripped the book in her hands with more strength and turned each page forcefully. He also watched her eyes move across the page at a much faster pace than what she normally read at. Robin could see that she was trying to give the appearance of being calm, but was anything but calm on the inside.

He looked at the other Titans in the room, and they were fairing much better. They were close, but they weren't on the same team. Seeing the Titans of Jump City fall apart had affected them, but not anywhere close to as much as if it were their team that fell apart. Aqualad was looking through their kitchen for something to eat, and the only difference Robin could pick up on was an increased amount of times Aqualad ran his hand through his hair. Robin thought that it might be a nervous habit of his. The twins were the only two talking, and Robin was only picking up one of every six words they said. He believed it was something about how crazy white people were.

Robin looked back at his own two teammates and saw them in pain. He knew he was fairing better than them, but that was only due to the fact that he was ignoring most of what happened. Robin could just put everything behind him and focus on the task at hand, but that was only reachable by being Batman's sidekick for years. He knew that he needed to be there for his team, now more than ever, so he got up and approached Raven.

"Hey Raven. Are you doing okay?" he asked as tenderly as he could.

She glanced up from her book and said, "I'm a little busy here." And looked back down.

Robin knew she needed to have someone there for her and tried again. "Both of us know you're not enjoying that book right now." He said.

Raven looked up again, but this time, closed her book and set it on her lap. She held his gaze and responded, "Fine. So I'm feeling terrible, we all are. I just want to be alone right now."

She looked back down and went to reopen her book, but she couldn't find the strength to do it. Raven looked back up at Robin to find he was still looking at her. She set the book down and patted the seat next to her, inviting Robin to sit down. Robin sat down next to her and extended a hand to her. Raven eyed his extended hand for a moment, but eventually reached out and grabbed it and held on like it was a life line. Robin knew that Raven enjoyed her privacy, but something on this level couldn't be handled alone.

Cyborg was at the other end of the couch and happened to look up at that moment. He saw his other two teammates together, and knew he couldn't stay sitting where he was. He walked over to his friends and picked them both up in a hug that rivaled Starfire's. When he set them back down, he sat near them and they began to talk about everything they'd been avoiding the entire time.

"I know how hard it is for me to do anything against Starfire, so I don't even know how much it must kill ya' to put Star away like that, Robin." Cyborg spoke.

Robin nodded. "I've had to fight Batman while he'd been mind controlled, and it was hard enough to do that. This is a whole new level with Starfire. We're both fully conscious and know the full extent to what we are doing. Having to oppose her like that..." he trailed off not knowing words to describe it. "It hurt less when Slade's nanobots tore me apart from the inside, than having to do what I just did right now." Robin said back to his mechanical friend. "It must be terrible for you to see Beast Boy like that Cyborg." He added.

Cyborg replied, "You know it. He's my best friend, and has been my best friend for years. He was the first person that still saw me as a person after I was turned into half machine. Then again, I felt better cuz at least I didn't turn green."

He and Robin chuckled as Raven smiled. Cyborg looked at the empath and added, "I bet you had some fun catching Beast Boy."

Raven shrugged and replied, "Less than you think. I'd rather beat him over something he deserves."

Robin looked at her with a questioning look, so she added, "That doesn't mean I think think he did the right thing. It's just, he's actually thought about this and isn't acting on childish impulse."

Robin was still surprised by her answer and asked, "So you're not mad at him?"

"Oh no, I'm furious. In fact, once he gets out of prison, or whatever the verdict is, I'm locking him in another dimension for a few days so he really can think about what he's done."

The other two laughed and Cyborg asked, "Starfire too?"

She shook her head and responded, "No, I couldn't do that to Starfire. She's been my sister since I've come to earth." She paused as she realized something else about her alien friend. "I guess, we have that in common: not being born on earth."

Cyborg grabbed both of them again to bring them into a second hug, which they made it appear they liked it less than they actually did, and said, "It's okay. It's almost all done and behind us now."

Right then, Speedy called and his face came up on the giant t.v. screen. The side of his face was now forming a fairly large bruise. As the residents in the tower stared at him, he said, "Guys, we have a problem."

[End Chapter]

Another Chapter down! How'd I do? We have more Titans joining the fight, and they aren't all on the same side! Did that go how you think the Titan's might react with having to fight fellow Titans? Would the Titans really react like that after facing each other? I would like to know what you think. Don't worry if you're thinking that they really didn't fight during all of that; there will definitely be actual fights in the future, trust me.

Also, I want to give two shoutouts:

Big thanks to JP-Ryder for giving me the idea of the mayor's retaliation for Control Freak's escape, and overall brainstorming of ideas for the story down the line. You're awesome for helping me out, and you're reviews always help me think about how I'm gonna write my next chapter.

And a sincere thanks to TheUltimateStar for leaving amazing reviews. It makes me so happy that you point out little things in the chapter because I think, "Yes! Someone noticed!" Both of you review with each chapter, and you're fantastic human beings!

While I'm at it, I love all of you that have reviewed, favorited, or followed (or a combination of the the three), because you make writing this story so much better.

As always, another chapter given, another added into your book of all things Above Average... Maybe?


	8. Chapter 8

"Guys, we have a problem."

The Titans in the tower just stared back without responding. Seeing the state of Speedy's face, they were terrified of what that problem might be. Even Speedy didn't want to go on, so they ended up staring at each other for what seemed like minutes. Speedy knew that it eventually had to be said so he cleared his throat.

"They're gone. We didn't even make it to police station." He said, barely putting words together.

Robin rose from his seat on the couch and asked, "They're gone?"

Speedy nodded ever so slowly. The pain in his head made him not want to move quickly, but the pain of saying what he had to was even worse. "Bumble Bee, Starfire, Beast Boy, and Control Freak. They're all gone. Bumble Bee pulled us over on a side street and I think she knocked me out cold."

Cyborg rose from his seat as well. "Are you sure?"

In response, Speedy held up Bumble Bee's communicator that had a note on it only with the word "sorry" written across it.

"I'm sure." Speedy responded.

Everyone in the room deflated. The Jump City Titans had just come to terms with what had happened, and now it all came crashing down again. Aqualad and the twins now approached the monitor. Things just got a lot more personal for them as well. Now their own team leader had just knocked Speedy unconscious and helped three prisoners escape.

"That can't be right! There's no way Bumble Bee would do that!" Aqualad yelled back.

"Hey, you know I wish that this wasn't true too, but the side of my face says otherwise!" Speedy shot back with a point to the massive bruise on his temple.

"¡Eso es una idea loca!" Mas yelled and was quickly followed by Menos, "¡Está usted equivocado!"

"Sorry muchachos, but Bumble Bee's really gone. I wouldn't joke around about this." Speedy responded back to them.

Robin decided to take things on one thing at a time, so he focused on getting Speedy back to them. The painful things could come second.

"Speedy, we need you back at the tower for a debriefing, but I don't think you're in good enough shape to drive back. Raven can teleport to your location, or we can send Mas y Menos to run and come get you. Which one do you think would be better?"

Speedy really thought about his answer. He had a good chance of having a concussion, so he didn't want to make it worse. They would both be quick trips, but they both had their draw backs. He'd been teleported by Raven before and it almost made him sick, and in the state he was in now, sickness was a certainty. If the twins carried him back, his head would be jostled around, and he'd probably get a killer headache. He knew to risk a headache rather than risk throwing up on the empath and get sent to Hell (literally).

"Send Mas y Menos. I don't think I could handle teleporting right now." He said after thinking it out.

"Okay. Leave the car for now, we'll pick it up later. See you in a few Speedy." Robin called out before ending the transmission. He turned to the twins and nodded. With a salute they took off to pick up Speedy.

About the same time the twins arrived at the T-Car, the rogue Titans and Control Freak were arriving at an apartment complex. They had been following Bumble Bee for the past half an hour, trying to reach their destination. They hadn't made the best time going there, because one of the four couldn't fly and was also publicly wanted. When they did finally arrive, they found themselves in front of an old, worn down apartment that made you think it couldn't cost more than fifteen dollars a month. One out of every three bricks were missing, at least seven of the windows were completely shattered, there were trash piles more than a foot high on either side of the door, and Control Freak was pretty sure there was a tail sticking out of the one on the right.

"I know it doesn't look good, but we will be safe here. I trust the owner as much as I do you guys." Bumble Bee said to her companions as they stood there, taking in the sight of the building.

"It is still better than the last one." Starfire added, trying to stay positive. She turned to Bumble Bee and continued with a smile, "If you trust this person, friend Bumble Bee, then I do as well."

Bumble Bee smiled back and said, "Then let's say hi to her."

Bumble Bee walked up to the door and looked at the buzzer next to it. She looked for her friend's name on the list of rooms, and once finding it, she pressed the button next to it. There was no response for a moment, and Bumble Bee wondered if the thing actually worked. Eventually, a voice came out of the speaker that was barely audible due to the speaker being so broken.

"Hello?" the voice said.

"Hey Cass, it's Karen. Mind if me and a few friends stop by?" Bumble Bee asked.

"Karen? Long time no see, girl! I'll be down in a sec!" the voice responded excitedly.

Bumble Bee smiled at her team, happy that her choice of stay was showing real promise. Starfire and Control Freak just smiled back, but Beast Boy looked at her with narrowed eyes.

"Your name's Karen?" He asked in a shocked tone.

"It is, but I better not hear anything funny about that, Garfield." She responded with extra emphasis on his name.

Beast Boy was surprised that she even knew his name. "Hey! How'd you know my name?" He asked with a tinge of anger in his voice.

Bumble Bee laughed back and said, "There aren't many female heroes in the biz, so we stick close."

Before Beast Boy went to ask if it was Starfire or Raven that told her, but the door to the apartments opened. A girl with blonde hair that appeared to be pretty close to them in age walked out and pulled Bumble Bee into a hug. Beast Boy and Control Freak also happened to notice she wasn't too bad on the eyes either.

"Hey there girl! You never visit anymore! What's up with that?" She asked with a smile.

"I moved cities. I'm with a group of heroes in Steel City. It's not the closest place to Jump." Bumble responded with a little embarrassment.

"You gotta tell me about it, but let's get everyone inside first. It get's a little sketchy out here sometimes." She said back.

With that, the group piled through the door, and headed up towards Cass's room. The two old friends chatted the entire way up there, and only stopped once everyone is inside. The other three looked around the room, astonished by how nice it looked compared to the outside. Cass realized that she had practically ignored everyone else because she was so excited to see Bumble Bee again. She turned to the group of people that now resided in her house to talk to them for the first time.

"Where are my manners? I'm Cass and, uh, well I, uh." She started, but completely lost her train of thought seeing that she already knew all three, and one was on the news less than an our ago for murdering someone and breaking out of jail. She slowly turned back away from the group and faced Bumble Bee again.

"Why is Control Freak one of your friends?" She asked in a very confused voice

Bumble Bee gave an awkward chuckle and said, "Well, it's a long story. I'll just, uh, let Starfire and Beast Boy explain."

Beast Boy ducked his head and rubbed his hand on the back of it while Starfire clasped her hands and looked down at he floor. After a second, they both glanced at each other and Beast Boy said, "Not it." Starfire sighed, and after looking at Cass, began telling her how they came to be in this position.

"Control Freak had been wrongfully imprisoned for the murder of James McKinney. He says that the man had a bomb, and in trying to remove it, accidentally removed his chest." Starfire began her story, but was interrupted by Bumble Bee.

"Wait, hold on. So Control Freak had a reason for killin' that guy? I thought you two were just against the no killin' rule that the mayor added!"

Starfire nodded and responded, "Yes he saved many in the art museum including us. That is why I removed him from his place of imprisonment. I brought him back to the tower after doing so, but my friends, especially Robin, did not approve of what I had done. I then left the tower because we were not welcome. I was going to return when friend Beast Boy decided to leave the tower and join us." She shot him a quick smile and he returned it. "Then we tried to retrieve the remote that belongs to Control Freak, but the Titans had taken the remote back to the tower. We attempted to retrieve it, even though it was defended well, and we had almost succeeded. We were captured and were on our way to be imprisoned when friend Bumble Bee did the "knocking out" on Speedy. We have now come here and seek safety in your home, Cass."

Cass didn't know what to say. There were a lot of complicated things going on, and she didn't want to be mixed up in it. She went to tell them that, but she saw how they looked. The three looked dead tired, barely able to stay on their feet. They had just lost a lot of friends and can't even stay in their own home.

She said, "Okay, you guys can stay here. I don't know for how long, but at least for now, you can."

Starfire, as tired as she was, dove at Cass and pulled her into a hug. "Thank you, friend Cass! It is most glorious that you are allowing us to stay here!"

She deposited her new friend, only slightly injured from the hug, back on the floor. Beast boy and Control Freak said quiet thank you's as well, but they were barely keeping their eyes open.

Cass noticed that and said, "You guys get some sleep. I'll have food for you guys when you wake up."

Back at Titan's Tower, Robin had just finished learning everything that Speedy knew, and it wasn't much. It was getting later on in the evening and he was frustrated with how little they knew about the other Titans' location. He had no idea even where to start the search. They could be absolutely anywhere in the city. As he was walking through the tower, he noticed that everything was quiet. As he entered the main room, he would have guessed it was empty due to the lights being off, and it being completely silent, but he made out a silhouette against the window. He approached and saw that it was his metallic friend.

"Hey Cyborg, want some company?" Robin asked.

Cyborg didn't turn around to face him, but still replied, "Sure." In a quiet voice.

Robin walked up beside him and asked, "What's on your mind."

Cyborg sighed and responded, "This whole thing's a big mess. Everybody's leavin' to help out a criminal, we had to send our friends to prison, came to terms with doing that, and then figured out that they didn't even make it there cuz Bumble Bee broke 'em out." He let silence sit for a moment and then finished, "We're not really the Titans anymore. This ain't us."

Robin heard the pain in his voice, but didn't know how to help his hurting friend. He still wanted to try. "Not everyone has left yet. We lost people that we were the closest to, but not everyone is gone. Things look terrible now, but it won't be like this forever. Let's try to get some sleep, and try to figure this out tomorrow."

Cyborg nodded, and they both walked to Cyborg's room together but didn't speak a word the entire time. After Cyborg entered his room, Robin went towards his. He detoured and made a stop at each of his friends' rooms. All had their doors closed, and none had any sounds coming out of them. Robin knew that this had hit them all hard and didn't blame them for not taking it well. They'd figure something out tomorrow; he knew they would. Robin made it to his room, and joined the rest of his team in the numbness of sleep.

The next morning, in Cass's apartment, Bumble Bee was the first to wake up. She looked around the living room in which she had fallen asleep in. Beast Boy and Starfire were asleep in a spare bedroom, and Control Freak sat on another couch across from her. She was a little angry at having to sleep in the same room as Control Freak, not because she had bad blood with him, but because he snored louder than an elephant with a stuffed nose. She started to look about the room and noticed the décor. It was much indeed nicer than the building itself, and she had a definite taste for ancient Greece. There were antiques everywhere in the room, and she began remembering her friend's old favorite past time. She got up to inspect them more closely, but heard a noise from the kitchen. She went to the kitchen instead and found Cass putting a meal together.

"You don't have to do all this for us." She told her friend.

Cass looked up from her work and smiled back. "No I do. I'm paying all of you back for taking care of this city, Steel City, and for being wrongfully incarcerated. You guys deserve something nice right now."

"Well do you need some help at least?" Bumble Bee asked, trying to at least lessen her load.

"Nah, I got this. You just relax and I'll be done in just a little while." She said with another smile.

"Well thanks then, and I don't want to make the meal harder to make, but Beast Boy is-" Bumble Bee started, but Cass finished.

"Vegetarian. Read it in some article about influential vegetarians and vegans. Already have something for him."

Bumble Bee was impressed. Cass was putting a lot of effort into this. It hit her that it probably would cost a lot to put together such a meal and asked, "How are you paying for all this?"

Cass looked back at the meal she was preparing and replied, "I sold one of my, uh, findings."

Bumble Bee arched her brow, "Findings? You mean priceless artifacts you stole? I thought you said you were done with all that?"

"I am done with it. I haven't stolen anything for a long time, but I still knew a good fence and sold one of mine that I wasn't particularly attached to. It didn't look good in the house." She said, still focusing on the food.

Bumble Bee shrugged. "Well, I can't get mad at you for doing that for us, so thanks. It's good to hear you haven't taken anything in a while."

Cass looked back up. "Yup, last one was a pair of these cool gauntlets I took from an archeological dig. Weird, um, stuff happened so I'm taking a break."

Bumble Bee nodded. "Alright then. Well, I'll let you finish with the food here."

Cass smiled at Bumble Bee as she walked out of the kitchen and continued making her guests their food.

In the spare bedroom, Beast Boy was just waking up. He decided that it would be lovely to just lay in bed for awhile. It felt nice to finally be able to get some rest and relaxation. Things had been going almost nonstop, so the down time was much appreciated. As he lay there he began to notice a very muffled sound that was being repeated. It was slightly high pitched and would fluctuate every now and then. Beast Boy thought it sounded familiar, but couldn't pin it down exactly. His eyes roamed the room he was in, looking for what might be the cause of such a sound. His eyes eventually fell on Starfire on the bed across from him, and he saw that her shoulders were shaking at the same speed of the sound being made. He saw her face pressed into the pillow and finally put two and two together. Starfire was crying? She was the happiest person he ever knew, and now she was crying. Sure she felt other emotions than just being happy, but it usually skipped down to righteous fury. Even then, she'd be back to sunshine and rainbows in around five minutes. Beast Boy was crushed to see her like this.

"Star?" was all he said, not knowing what he could do to help.

The sounds instantly stopped, and she raised her head off her pillow. She turned and faced Beast Boy, forcing a smile on her face, even though there were tears sliding down her cheeks.

"My apologies for doing the waking of you. I will be quieter." She said, forcing her voice to its normal tone, and dropped her head back down onto the pillow.

That sentence hit him hard. Why would she just apologize for crying too loudly? Beast Boy had to do something. He got up off his bed and walked over to hers. He sat down on the edge of her bed and spoke.

"You okay Star?" he asked and immediately thought, _Of course she isn't! She's cryin', ya' idiot!_

Starfire mumble a response from behind her pillow. "I am fine, thank you."

Beast Boy wasn't going to give up. He was going to be there for her. "You can tell me, Star, I won't be mad, or judge, or whatever the reason is ya' won't say it."

Starfire raised her head and looked at him. "Promise?"

"I promise." Beast Boy responded.

Starfire sat up in her bed and began pouring everything out. "I feel I am responsible for why everyone is against each other. If I had not taken Control Freak out of is imprisonment, we would all still be happy and together. I am doing the missing of our home, Raven, Cyborg, Silkie, and very much Robin. Even the fights of tofu and meat, morning sessions of the working out, and the crime alerts that happen during the nights of movies, friend Beast Boy. I do not know if we will be able to have these things again. I believe I am the cause of much pain between friends." After a pause she added, "I am also angry with myself for crying as well."

Beast Boy sat still for a moment. There was a lot on her mind right now, and he wasn't sure he was qualified to handle all of it, but he still wanted to try and help. Kind of forgetting everything she said, because there was quite a lot said, he began with the last thing she said.

"Why are you angry that you're crying?" he asked.

Starfire wiped her nose on the back of her hand and explained. "On Tamaran, crying is reserved only for the death of someone close, or when there is news of a battle that we have lost. It is done as a community and in public with those you love." She paused as she looked around the room. "Not crying about those still alive, in a room alone."

"But everybody cries though. I don't think it's bad to cry about missing people you love. I miss everybody too! I haven't played video games with Cyborg in days for the first time since we became a team. I miss Robin gettin' on me for slackin' off, cuz it makes me a better person. I even miss Raven makin' jokes about how dumb I am; cuz I know she doesn't mean it." He kept going and his voice began to shake the longer he talked. "I loved livin' in the tower with all of you guys cuz you're all really awesome people, and it's really fun being able to hang out with everyone. Every night was like a sleepover with friends, and that's really cool. I miss havin' all that stuff." By now, his eyes were watering, and tears threatened to spillover onto his face. "But I miss just all of us hangin' out together the most. Like when we get pizza after a solid win for the good guys, or even when we all get beat so bad we all would be down in the infirmary, having patch each other up. Even then, we still knew we'd get 'em next time, cuz we were a team, and we would be there for each other."

After finishing, Beast Boy noticed a tear had traveled down each side of his face and he added, "Dang it, now I'm cryin' too." He punctuated his sentence with a sniffle.

"I thought there is nothing wrong about crying, friend Beast Boy?" She asked with (at least this time) feigned innocence.

Beast boy laughed and responded, "There's not, I just, well… never mind."

He laughed some more and Starfire joined him in doing so. Together they laughed and cried at the same time, just happy to be with the other person but still missing their other teammates.

Beast Boy eventually added, "And don't say it's all your fault, cuz you saved Control Freak's life. You shouldn't be mad at yourself for doing that. We'll either clear his name, or the others will realize he's innocent, and everything will be okay again. "

Starfire nodded and smiled. She was glad that Beast Boy was still there for her, and that he gave her hope that everything would be okay.

"Thank you, I feel much better now. I am most glad that you are still with me; you are a good friend, Beast Boy." She told him.

Beast Boy smiled back and said, "You're welcome, Star."

He realized that he could now smell food being prepared, and completely lost track of what he was going to say. After a few sniffs to confirm his suspicion, he said, "I think I smell food, and I just realized how hungry I am."

Starfire too realized how long it had been since her last good meal, and she too wanted to go down and see if there was something to eat. "I have the hunger as well. Let us look and see what food there is to eat."

They both hopped off the bed and ran down to the kitchen. On the way, they wiped their faces clear of all tears. They found Bumble Bee, Control Freak, and Cass gathered around a table completely full of food. There was a full chicken cooked, fresh baked bread, mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus, steamed carrots, and a huge cup full of gravy. Beast Boy was still satisfied with his options, even though there was meat. Then he saw Cass pulled some tofu off the stove and he almost lost it.

Cass saw all of them standing there with mouths watering, Bumble Bee too, and didn't want to keep them any longer. "I know it's way too early for dinner, but you three haven't eaten in a while so I thought it was a good idea. Dig in!"

All four dove right in and began devouring everything edible in sight. They all loved every bite of it, and it was all gone in almost under ten minutes. There wasn't time for polite small talk, they just wanted to get as much food in them in as little time it took to do so. After it was all gone, they sat in the living room, perfectly content with everything provided. Eventually, Bumble Bee spoke up.

"Thanks for the food, Cass. Really, it was absolutely amazing." She said to their host, and everyone joined in and said their thanks.

"You guys are too kind, I'm not some fancy chef. And I hate to break it to you, but not every meal will be like this." Cass said, trying to not be too prideful.

The others didn't care. They felt safe, were no longer hungry, and just happy to not be in prison.

Starfire spoke, saying, "It matters not! You are very kind to help us now, and I am grateful for all things you have done."

The whole time in the kitchen, everyone was so focused on the meal, that Starfire's puffy eyes went unnoticed. Now, they were back to normal, and no one but Beast Boy knew of her bout of crying that morning. They all sat in a comfortable silence until Control Freak spoke. "This is fantastic and all, but we can't stay here forever. We've got the remote now, so now we can start looking for the explosives. Should we head out now?"

There was silence as everyone thought about what their next move should be.

"I think we should lay low for a little while. If we go out right now, the others will be watchin' the area for any sign of us." Beast Boy threw out as an idea.

"I agree. This is the time that the other Titans will be on their highest alert. If we go looking for the explosives now, we're sure to get caught." Bumble Bee confirmed.

Starfire turned to Cass and asked, "Would it be too troublesome to stay here for a week, that we may do the hiding out?"

Cass thought about it for a moment and said, "If I get a personalized autograph from you and Beast Boy, sure. I could use some company around here."

Starfire gave another crushing hug to Cass as Control Freak spoke up, "What about mine?"

After pausing she replied, "Maybe, once you're proven innocent."

Control Freak threw a fist in the air, "I'll take that as a yes!"

As everyone laughed in Cass's apartment, no one laughed in Titan's Tower. They were all standing together in the main room, awaiting Robin's order to go and find the rogue Titans. Cyborg stood with his arms crossed, blankly staring out the window. Next to him, Raven stood with her hood drawn and eyes cast at the floor. Aqualad and Speedy leaned against the back of the couch with their eyes narrowed. Mas y Menos stood across from them and also had their arms crossed. Robin stood there looking at them, with grim determination. He thought he might as well jump right into it.

"Speedy, I don't think you're quite ready to head out yet, so you're going to stay here and at the tower incase there's an emergency alarm. Now, Control Freak told us exactly how he would look for the remote, and there wasn't a reason to lie at that moment, so we are going to say that that is going to be their plan. That means the rest of us are going to be spread out around the art museum. He gave us a two-mile radius, but they're more likely to start close and work their way out. For today, Raven, you will be overwatch, and stay above the museum. Mas Y Menos, you're going to have the largest area to cover. That means the rest will be split evenly between the last four of us. We don't have to be doing in depth searches, just patrolling areas that contain t.v's. Any questions?"

The rest of the Titans shook their heads. None of them were excited to go out on patrol, but they all knew it was necessary. Robin saw there were no questions, so he gathered them together to leave.

"We all have our assignments, Titans go." Robin said without his usual energy. He didn't even make it into a shout. It was just a simple command issued to show that the meeting was over.

The Titans moved into the T-Car, Raven ended up teleporting Cyborg to the car last night, and they drove back together, leaving speedy behind to man the tower. The entire ride to the art museum was was completely silent. They arrived, and all but Cyborg exited the car. He thought that he could cover more ground while driving, and gave the other three smaller portions to cover. They patrolled for seven hours with absolutely no sign of the rogue Titans. Even Speedy noted that there wasn't a single alarm for any crimes. By the end of the day, they were all dead tired and met back at the T-Car, and they drove back home in dead silence again. Once returning, Robin notified the police to send a few cars to patrol the residences around the museum. They all gathered around the table and ate a silent dinner, and immediately went to bed with saying short goodnight wishes. The next day, they woke up, had a silent breakfast, and left for patrol again. This time Robin cleared Speedy, and he came on patrol with the rest. Cyborg rewired Robin's communicator so that it picked up on the Titan's crime alert incase something came up. Robin also brought his R-Cycle, and had Raven out patrolling as well, letting them cover a more ground the second day. Yet again there was no sign of any crime for the day, and they all headed back home, silently. At dinner, there was the first attempt at talking.

Aqualad spoke up half way through the meal saying, "At least this new Bill has kept the crime down so we can patrol the area."

"It's also the reason why we have to patrol." Raven said, effectively ending any chance of having a conversation.

No other words were said the rest of dinner, and the Titans went to bed yet again with only short and quiet good night wishes spoken. The next day, came and went like the two days before it, and the fourth day was the same. On the fifth day, Robin awoke and was sick of how they were all handling the situation. He'd prefer constant complaining to this never ending silence that had somehow lasted four days. This was out of character of all the titans; even Raven usually spoke more than the little bit she was now. He knew he was failing his team by having such a silence take hold over all of them. He was going to make a stand. Robin jumped out of his bed and rushed down to the main room. He came up to the master panel that controlled the tower's defenses and pulled the emergency alarm. Sirens blared and red lights flashed, jarring all residents from their sleep and sending them all running down to the main room. In under a minute they all stood around Robin, still wearing their usual sleeping clothes, but ready to take on any threat. Robin released the alarm, making the tower quiet again, and looked everyone in the eyes.

"Now that I have all of your attention, I would like to inform you all that we are all taking the day off of patrolling. We're hanging out, and having fun today."

The Titans just stared at their leader. They all came rushing in expecting a threat, but were met with just a simple announcement. They looked at each other. Cyborg's hand was in cannon form, Aqualad had his hands up in a defensive position, Speedy had an arrow drawn, Mas y Menos had there hands touching and were in runner's stances, and Raven's hands glowed with dark energy. After a short silence, Speedy was the first to laugh. Soon after the twins fell into laughter, then Cyborg, then Aqualad, and Raven rolled her eyes at the absurdity of the situation. Robin smiled as he saw his friends' reactions; he hoped they would have responded something like they had.

"You don't think you could have announced that, I don't know, any other way possible?" Speedy said after calming down a bit.

Robin smiled back and said, "I could have, but you all needed an adrenaline rush anyway."

They all laughed together, and Robin continued.

"Everyone has been feeling terrible in the tower, and as the leader, I needed to put a stop to it. Today, we are asking the police to cover our shift of patrol and we are all hanging out together. Does anyone have a problem with that?" Robin asked his team.

Everyone shook their heads with smiles on their faces. Robin knew that everyone needed this, and was happy to oblige.

"Okay then, Cyborg I'm going to need you to go grocery shopping, and anyone who wants to join him may. We are pretty much completely out of food, so that's going to be step one."

Aqualad had been thinking of a way to cheer his team up, and he thought that now was a good time to set his plan into motion.

"I have to leave for a while to set something up for all of us to do. I'll be back in just a while though. I promise, that you will all enjoy it." Aqualad announced as he turned to leave.

Speedy never liked to be shown up by his friend and teammate, so he spoke up as well. "I have something for you guys too, but I'm going to need to be in the workshop for awhile to perfect it."

In fact, Speedy's idea had been in his head for a long time, but he never got around to making it a reality. Now seemed to be the best time for him to show off his brilliant idea. Both boys rushed out of the room to get there plans set up. Raven was the next one to speak up.

"I know this is going to sound ironic, but the dead silence around the tower has made it incredibly hard to focus on reading. I want to take advantage of the moment and get some reading in, if you don't mind Cyborg."

Cyborg was perfectly fine with it. "You do what you need to Raven. Any of you three joining me?" he said to Robin, Mas, y Menos.

Robin shook his head. "I have to contact the police and alert them that we aren't able to patrol today. I might also send something to the mayor as well. I'll see you in just a while."

That left just the twins with Cyborg. He smiled at them. "You guys game? I don't think we've really hung out much."

The twins were perfectly fine with spending some quality time with the mechanical Titan and gave a resounding, "¡Si!"

"Booyah! Let's go then!" Cyborg said enthusiastically.

As they were leaving Menos asked, "¿Podemos conducir?"

Cyborg laughed. "What? Aren't you guys like, thirteen? No way you're driving my baby!"

"¡Pero juntos somos veintiséis!" Mas countered.

"No, you can't just add your ages together just cuz you do everything together!" Cyborg said back loudly while laughing.

"No es justo." They said together as they all just passed out of earshot.

Raven let a smile smile rise up on her face, as the three left to go shopping for food. Things now felt so much better with people talking again. Having to be around the constant negative energy of her teammates had really taken its toll on her over the past few days. She had been meditating for almost every waking moment she was in the tower, but she also spent most of the day out on patrol. Being around her friends now that they were much happier felt like a wonderful vacation that Raven had no idea she needed. She settled down in her usual spot and picked the book off the floor that had untouched for the past few days. She started reading, and found it very easy to concentrate on her book. She got so lost in Dickens' story of Oliver Twist, she didn't notice that she had another visitor enter the room. It took the visitor climbing on to the back of her seat and nudging her on the side of the head to finally get her attention. When she turned to look at what had brushed against her head, she jumped back with an uncharacteristically girly squeal.

"Azar, Silkie! Don't creep up on me like that!" she said angrily to the Titans' pet, after a short recovery of her senses.

Her anger cooled as she saw the creature's face. He looked so hurt by what she said, even though she knew he had not fully understood her words. She realized that it hadn't been her yelling that hurt him, but the fact that he had been largely ignored over the past few days. Sure he was still being fed, but it was nothing like the attention that his "Knorfka" Starfire gave him. She felt sorry for the little creature and did something she never thought she would ever do: Raven picked up Silkie and set him on her lap and began to pet him. She was usually nauseated by contact with the overgrown larvae, but now, it was different. He needed someone to be there for him, just like she needed her teammates. Silkie's mood began to improve, but not by very much. Raven had an idea. _No, that isn't necessary._ She looked back at Silkie's saddened face. _Okay, just this once while no one is here._

"There, there my little Bumgorf." She said stiffly.

Instantly, his features instantly brightened and he purred in his own insect way back at her. He obviously recognized Starfire's words, and Raven was encouraged by his reaction to finish the rest of the saying.

"Your Knorfka, Raven, is here." She told Silkie much more smoothly with a smile on her lips.

He gave a little hop in her lap as a response to Raven's comforting words, and Raven let out a small laugh at the adorable insect's antics. He was looking so much better after hearing Starfire's comforting words, and she realized how much the team's spilt had affected everyone.

"It's okay, I miss Starfire too." Raven said to reassure her new friend, but she also thought that she might have been reassuring herself as well. She was missing her closest friend a lot, and she hadn't even been acknowledging it lately. As she sat there stroking Silkie, she thought about how much she had indeed missed her friend. Starfire had always tried to get her to do girly things with her, and it always seemed to rub her the wrong way when she did. Now, she would do anything to have her walk through the door and drag her out to "the mall of shopping." Her happy energy was always nice to be around. The more she thought about it, she even dared to say she missed the same thing with Beast Boy. Not the terrible jokes, pranks, and unreasonably loud arguing that came up so often, but his positive energy was something that she enjoyed.

"Maybe I miss Beast Boy too." She confided to her mute friend.

"Well it's a good thing he ain't here to hear that, cuz you wouldn't have heard the end of it." A voice came out of nowhere.

Raven looked incredulously at Silkie for a moment. After a second, she realized that she recognized that voice and turned around to find Cyborg standing behind her, arms loaded with grocery bags.

"Cyborg? How are you back so quickly? You left maybe five minutes ago!" She said in a voice louder than her usual monotone and much more full of surprise.

Cyborg laughed and responded, "It's been a little over an hour since I left! Been thinking about Beast Boy that hard?"

"No! I guess I was reading longer than I thought I was." Raven replied as she pulled her hood over her head to cover a slight blush.

"Was the book about Beast Boy then?" he asked, knowing full well he was wading into very dangerous waters.

Raven held up the book next to her. "Charles Dickens actually, you uncultured microwave oven."

Cyborg couldn't help but laugh at her creative insult. After recovering, he asked, "And at what point did you start talking to Silkie?"

"Shouldn't you be carrying in the rest of the groceries?" she shot back at her metallic friend.

"Don't forget that I went to the store with twin speedsters." Cyborg responded.

At that moment, a red and white blur shot past them multiple times and deposited a large amount of groceries on the counter in a very short amount of time. The two brothers stood next to the counter and bowed.

"Gracias, mi amigos." Cyborg told the speedsters as he deposited his groceries next to theirs.

To keep Cyborg from starting again on the same subject, Raven got to work putting the food away. The first bag she opened up unexpectedly contained tofu. She held up the contents to Cyborg and looked at him with an arched eyebrow.

"Well, I thought I should get some just incase the little green bean came back soon." Cyborg defended.

"And you're getting on me for thinking about Beast Boy?" Raven asked with her eyebrow still arched.

"He's my best friend. What's your excuse?" Cyborg responded quickly.

Raven just decided to give this round to Cyborg. He was lucky he started off with her already on her heels. Next time he wouldn't be so lucky. The two quietly got to work at putting the rest of the food together. The whole time Cyborg thought about how lucky he was able to pull off a win with Raven. He tallied the total score Cyborg: 2, Raven: 31, but he could smell a comeback. By the time they finished, Robin had returned from wherever he was in the tower.

"The police have agreed to take our watch for today. They think we deserve a break from patrolling, even though they don't even fully understand why we're doing it." Robin informed his teammates.

They began putting a light snack together while they waited for Speedy and Aqualad to finish with their secret tasks. Mas y Menos took the helm for making their snack, and made all of them some amazing nachos. It was loaded with every nacho topping imaginable, and the group of five demolished it in minutes. When they finished, Robin received a message from Aqualad. After reading it, he sent an alert to Speedy to come down to join him.

Once Speedy came into the room Robin announced to his friends, "Aqualad's back with whatever thing he left for. He told us walk outside and see what he brought."

The group left to see what the surprise was, and on the way out Speedy asked, "Why do I smell nachos?"

Cyborg slapped a hand onto his friend's back and said, "My man, we just ate some of Mas y Menos's absolutely fantastic nachos."

Speedy looked back at Cyborg in complete shock. "Without Me?!" He yelled back.

Before anyone could give a response, they all were outside by then, and they saw Aqualad's surprise. They all completely forgot about the nachos, and just stood with wide eyes. Raven smiled and thought, _Okay, that's pretty cool._

[End Chapter]

There you have it ladies and gents! Sorry that I got this one in way later than I usually do! I was already slightly behind and I've had back to back days with tests that could possibly make me fail two different classes if I were to do badly on the tests. And yes, they are college classes (Yes, I am in college).

Anyway, How'd you like it? What could Aqualad have possibly brought for the team to help them unwind? Am I too cruel for ending it like that? Who knows the answer to these questions? You do, my readers, and I want to know what is in that big brain of yours. (I know it's big because you're reading my story)

On that note… I need feed back from you guys! I have to point out two guest reviews that show why I need you guys so much!

One pointed out to me that I hadn't been showing Starfire's thoughts on the subject, and you were very much correct my friend. Did I cover that enough for you? I'm going to make sure her thoughts are known to you readers from now on.

The second made me laugh and realize I can be a real dummy sometimes. It said that I had a major plot hole because I had said that the Bill instates the death penalty for MASKED Villains, and none of the villains persecuted wear masks! (Control Freak, Brother Blood, Plasmus, and Doctor Light). You too, are very much correct, and I have since amended the rule to be for COSTUMED villains (pretend Plasmus's goo is his costume if you must).

I need you people to tell me how to be the best writer I can, and also for me to give you the best story possible! Sorry for the long ending note. I'm done now.

Actually one more thing. Did Cass sound familiar? If you've read this far and can be the first person to tell me who is the gracious host to our rogue Titans (full name or super hero name), I will give you a shoutout in the next chapter posted! Sound fun? Now go! Go be the first one!

As always: you have read my newest chapter, is it Above Average in your book?


	9. Chapter 9

Raven was a hard person to impress. She had spent her entire life up until around the age of fifteen, training to to not feel emotion. The monks of Azarth were the best teachers one could find in this dimension, or any other. She spent her time after Azarath proving she didn't show emotion, almost to a point that she almost destroyed her team to prove so. Underneath it all, she was still Raven, and Raven was a teenage girl. That is why she couldn't help but smile when she saw that Aqualad had brought a school of dolphins right in front of their tower. The entire group watched them dive up and out of the water and glide through the air. Even when you're heroes that travel the world, you still can see knew things that you've never seen before. They looked so graceful as they cut through the water, and the Titans couldn't help but to just stand and watch.

Eventually Aqualad spoke up and yelled at them, "Do you just want to stand there and watch, or come out here and swim with them?"

Cyborg yelled back, "Wait, it's not just a show?"

Aqualad shook his head and loudly responded, "Have you never heard of people swimming with dolphins?"

Cyborg paused for a moment to think and then sprinted into the water. He had no super suit to worry about, and he had recently upgraded his system to be more buoyant in water. The dolphins immediately swam towards him and brushed up against him.

Cyborg laughed and said to Aqualad, "Either you gave these guys a pep talk about what to do, or these are the friendliest dolphins I've ever seen."

After a short chuckle, Aqualad replied, "I'd say it's a little bit of both!"

He turned to see the rest of the team still standing on the beach and shouted, "What are you waiting for?"

The Titans glanced between each other and took off towards the water. Mas y Menos were the first two in, unsurprisingly, and Speedy came in behind them. He only had to ditch his shoes compared to Robin who had to lose his gloves and cape as well. Soon, only Raven stood on the beach. She was perfectly content with watching her friends swim with the dolphins because it was such a beautiful sight to see. Her friends weren't just going to let that slide though.

Aqualad was the first to encourage her to join them, with it being his idea and all. "Come on Raven! Don't you want to swim with dolphins? When are you gonna get another opportunity like that?"

Raven just decided to politely decline, "Thanks for the offer, but I'll stick with watching."

Robin was the second to try. "I have to admit, this is pretty cool, Raven. You have to at least try it!"

Raven didn't feel like repeating herself. "Pass."

Cyborg was the third and was hoping he was the charm. "We both know that you really want to try, so just get in here already!"

Raven knew he was right. She did really want to try it, and could at least join them for a little while. She unclasped her cloak and let it drop to the ground, and along with it, all the gems that were on her costume. Speedy made the unwise decision of whistling a cat call while she got ready to enter the water. She pretended not to notice, but once she drew near to the water, a dark tendril reached up and grabbed Speedy by the foot, dragging him underwater. The team looked where Speedy was a second ago, but he was nowhere where to be seen. He resurfaced almost twenty seconds later, gasping for breath. By that time, Raven was already in the water, already stroking a dolphin that swam in circles around her. Speedy knew that he probably deserved that and decided to give the empath a little space for a while.

Aqualad saw that everyone was still a little bit timid around his aquatics friends, so he decided to give them some helpful advice.

"Who wants to to try something really fun?" he asked his teammates.

Everyone was wary of Aqualad's sudden question, and they didn't really believe it would actually be fun. All suspected foul play, so no one stepped (or I should say swam) up.

Aqualad continued to try to prove he had no intentions of playing a joke on them. "Seriously. I talked to them before I called you guys out," He ignored Speedy's stifled laugh, "And if you guys place one arm around them, put one hand one hand on their dorsal fin, and tap them there, they'll take off swimming with you holding on!"

He was met with blank stares.

"No really, it is fun!" He exclaimed in frustration.

To everyone's surprise, Raven shot past them, holding on to a dolphin as it glided through the water. They watched her and all wondered how it felt. She wasn't making a sound, which could mean a multitude of things ranging from complete terror to it just not being exciting at all. What they all couldn't see was Raven's gigantic smile spread across her face. The dolphin took her in a large circle and brought her back to the team. They all swam towards her, asking how the trip was.

"How was it?" Cyborg practically yelled in excitement.

Raven just looked at them, the smile now gone from her face. She shrugged and took off again. The Titans looked at each each other.

"Good enough for me." Cyborg said with a shrug and took off towards the nearest dolphin.

He held the dolphin just as Aqualad instructed and after giving it a tap, it took off at a breakneck speed.

"Boooyaaahhh!" Cyborg yelled as he went by the group of Titans treading water.

They all began diving towards the dolphin nearest to them, and soon, they were all getting pulled around by Aqualad's guests. They spent the next three or four hours getting towed by them and were having the time of their life. They didn't tire of the exhilarating feeling the entire time, but were getting completely exhausted by it. Eventually, one by one they swam back to shore to watch the others, too tired to ride the dolphins themselves. Now, only Raven was the one left as she cruised around on the same dolphin she had first gone to. When the others were out swimming with her, they liked to try different ones to see if one was faster than another, but Raven had stayed with the same dolphin the entire time. Soon, she too had the dolphin drop her off near the shore. All Titans were now back on solid ground and they watched the dolphins swim about for a while before Aqualad mentally dismissed the pod of dolphins. The entire team waved as they swam away, and the dolphins shot out of the water in response.

The team went back inside the tower after gathering all of their discarded articles of clothing. Completely exhausted, they all spread out onto the pieces of furniture in the main room.

Robin turned and smirked at Speedy. "So what's your plan? I don't know if it's gonna beat that." Robin said, egging on his teammate.

Speedy wasn't going to back down from his challenge. "Oh it will, don't even worry Bird Boy. We just gotta wait till it gets dark first. You guys are gonna love it, trust me." He said with a cocky smile.

"Can't wait." Raven said with words dripping in sarcasm.

Cyborg was sincerely excited to see what the archer had in store. "Alright my man! I'm pumped to see whatcha got up your sleeve, Speedy!" He energetically told his friend.

"¿Qué vamos a hacer hasta noche?" Mas asked as Menos nodded in agreement.

"We can do whatever you guys want to." Robin said with a smile/

Across town, the rogue Titans were gathered around Cass's dinner table playing a game of poker, Texas hold 'em to be exact. For the past few days, those who were on the run had not left the apartment once. Well, both Beast Boy and Starfire left in the dead of night on more than one occasion to fly around and release some pent up energy. Sometimes they left together, but for the most part they flew separately. Being cooped up in the house for the entire first day was the absolute worst of them all. They had Control Freak's remote with them, and they were all itching to get work and find the explosives. Beast Boy had even left for a reconnaissance run, but quickly returned seeing that the other Titans had the area covered. After he returned and gave his team the news, they were glad that they were waiting to search for the explosives. The team sat around for hours, mostly keeping to themselves, until Beast Boy had the idea to play a board game. That suggestion turned into the sole existence of their entertainment over the next four days.

The classics were of course the first played, but they also caused huge division between players. Monopoly almost caused the table to be thrown through the wall and Uno almost got Control Freak punched in the teeth. Moving into the more creative games, the team tried their hand at Scrabble and Pictionary. Both Bumble and Cass were fairly good at both, Beast Boy carried his own in Pictionary but was rather terrible at scrabble, Control Freak was the opposite of him, and Starfire was having trouble picking up each game so far. Starfire tried to be the best sport she could be about it, but was indeed struggling. After those, someone mentioned the idea of Risk and the group began playing. Once understanding the basics of the game, Starfire quickly took control of the game. After she single handedly took out Beast Boy and then Cass, Bumble Bee and Control Freak drew a pact to take Starfire down. Once the pact was drawn, Starfire withdrew most of her forces to her country furthest away from the other players. The other two attempted to wipe her off the map, but instead completely thinned out their forces trying to do so. When it was Starfires turn again, she cashed in all of her cards, added to the already large army in her furthest country, and marched across the entire world in one turn. Everyone's respect for Starfire increased greatly, showing that she could not only hold her own on board game nights, but completely wipe the floor with them all. She just needed the right game.

That's how the rogue Titans spent their time the entire few days they spent camped out in Cass's apartment. The other highlight during the entire board game escapade, started out as a game of Trivial Pursuit. Bumble Bee noticed both Control Freak and Beast Boy's vast amounts of knowledge with anything nerd. She called an end to the game and ran out of the room, only to return shortly holding two large boxes about four feet in height. She set them next to each other and had the two boys stand behind them. Bumble Bee, Cass, and (every once in a while) Starfire spent the next few hours looking up, or coming up, with questions to see which guy could answer it faster. From an almost Jeopardy like game, it evolved into a game of one-up-manship, and then into full on debates. The three girls never bored of the game, because they laughed at how into it the two boys got.

Now they all were gathered around the table, after finishing every board game imaginable, playing a good game of poker. Only Bumble Bee knew how to play Texas hold 'em, so she taught every other person how. They all picked it up fairly quickly and were now halfway through a game. Sure Starfire had a terrible poker face and Beast Boy hadn't quite figured out if the Ace was higher than the King or the other way around, but they all managed and were having a good time.

Bumble Bee couldn't quite get into it because there really wasn't anything at stake. Having no poker chips, they had settle for playing with actual potato chips. There seemed to be getting a fewer and fewer amount of them as well, so somebody must have been eating some of them. In danger of losing interest, she spoke out too her teammates.

"Anyone else think this game needs a little more at stake?" She asked.

Her teammates looked back at her giving slight nods. As they did, an idea popped into Bumble Bee's head, and a wicked grin shot out across her face.

"So how about some strip poker?"

Everyone was stunned by the idea, well except for Starfire who asked, "What is this poker of strip?"

Cass clarified, "We pretty much use our clothing as poker chips. You lose in the game; you start losing clothes."

Starfire tapped her chin, saying, "That does sound interesting." As a Tamaranean, she was not completely thrown for a loop by the suggestion.

Beast Boy couldn't believe it. He was in the same room with three very attractive girls, he wasn't even the one to bring it up, and it hadn't been shot down already. He was about to show his approval, when he looked at Control Freak sitting next to him. Beast Boy almost threw up, as he realized what that entailed. He couldn't risk it. One scantily clad Control Freak outdid three pretty girls.

"How about some other time?" He said shakily, still traumatized from the mental pictures of Control Freak.

Bumble Bee was about to pounce on him for being scared, but before she did, she too saw who else was in their company.

"Yah, I think you're right, Beast Boy. Maybe another time." She said, also fighting the urge to vomit as well.

"So what are we gonna do now then?" Cass asked.

"We could watch a watch a movie." Control Freak volunteered.

"We could. I have a bunch of movies here that you guys could look through." Cass responded.

As she led Control Freak and Bumble Bee over to where she kept her movies, Starfire and Beast Boy hung back. The reason why a movie had not been suggested before was that the two Titans did not want to watch one. That was something that they did together as a team, and it didn't feel right to do it here. The entire time they had been here, they pushed to play more board games, because it wasn't an activity that they did as a team.

"You don't really wanna watch a movie too, huh?" Beast Boy asked his friend.

Starfire sighed and responded, "You are correct, friend Beast Boy. I do not wish to partake of the movie watching. It will only make me miss all of our friends back at the tower."

"Me too, Star. I was thinkin' the same thing, but maybe they'll pick somethin' to watch that we wouldn't back home." He said trying to be reassuring.

"You are right. Let us see their choice of movie." Starfire said as the two walked into the other room to see the others choice.

They found them clustered around the entertainment center that the t.v. rested on. As they entered the room, they picked up on the very end of the conversation.

"Wait, none of us have actually seen this?" Cass said rather loudly in surprise, "I heard so much about this one!"

"Well I guess that we gotta watch it then." Bumble Bee said with a smile.

She noticed the two that had just entered and turned to get their opinion.

"Hey you guys wanna watch this one?" Bumble Bee said, holding up the movie that she was holding.

Both of their faces paled as they saw that the other three had chosen to watch Wicked Scary.

Bumble Bee saw their reaction and said, "I guess you guys aren't a fan of scary movies. We'll look for another one."

As the other three began their search again, Beast Boy and Starfire thought back to the time they watched to movie. Peculiarly enough, neither thought of terrible memories. It was one of the most terrifying nights of their life, but neither thought of any of the frightening things they saw that night. They thought back to how close they sat to each other on the couch, how they moved around the tower, watching each others backs, and how they laughed about it after it all happened. Eventually the others decided on a movie, but the two Titans weren't even paying attention, even after the movie was started. They just sat and thought back to all of their previous movie nights as the movie played. When the movie finished, it was starting to grow dark outside, and they all decided that some food was in order.

Back at Titan's Tower, the group of heroes currently residing in it were all gathered in the main room.

"Yo, Speedy, it's pretty much dark now. Let's see what you got planned!" Cyborg happily yelled across the room to his teammate.

Speedy looked out the window and saw that he spoke correctly. "Give me five minutes to set everything up and then meet me outside."

Speedy turned to leave, but suddenly stopped. He snapped his fingers and added, "Better yet, meet on the roof." And with that, he took off to wherever he had his plans to set up.

"Ooh, the roof? That sounds interesting." Cyborg said to the rest in the room. "Do you think he can top your idea, Aqualad?"

Aqualad was usually a humble guy, but he had a rivalry with that archer that he didn't have with anyone else.

"Psh, he won't even come close to it." He replied with a smirk.

Robin spoke up saying, "Pride comes before the fall, Aqauald. Don't count him out yet."

Aqualad laughed. "The guy can shoot arrows, what's he gonna do? Put an apple on one of our heads and shoot it off?"

"He's smart with his arrows. I wouldn't put it past him to come up with a really good idea." Robin replied.

Cyborg was dying to see what he had plan, so he took off towards the roof. "Just debating it isn't gonna solve anything. Let's get up there and see what he's got planned."

The team took their time getting up on the roof, and eventually came to the door that led to it. Robin opened it and found some chairs set up and a blanket on the ground next to it.

"What's all this stuff?" Cyborg asked. His curiosity grew even more seeing what was outside.

They walked outside and began inspecting everything that Speedy had set up. Robin was intrigued as well, but then he recognized the blanket on the ground of their roof.

"Is that the blanket from my bed?" he asked to no one in particular.

"Yah, but they invented something called a washing machine. You'll be fine." A voice said from the door behind them.

Out walked Speedy with his bow and a quiver full of arrows.

"Come on, sit down, and make yourselves comfortable."

As everyone sat down in the chairs and on the blanket, Speedy stood off to the side. He drew an arrow, and faced everyone.

"Welcome to the Speedy show."

He pointed the arrow straight up and fired. There was a pause where nothing happened for a moment, and then a colorful explosion filled the sky above them.

"Firework arrows?!" Cyborg yelled out.

Speedy nodded. "And I've got a quiver full of them."

Everyone laughed and smile at him, and the twins even began clapping for him. Robin had to know how how it worked.

"Is it a timed explosion? I see that it's just the usual fireworks inside the arrow, so that would make sense." Robin asked Speedy.

After a chuckle, Speedy replied, "Actually it's set off once it reaches a certain altitude. It's pretty easy to calculate, since we're at sea level right now. That means that you can't just shoot them at someone, but it also means I can't take any of them back with me, so we're gonna have to use all of them tonight."

"Don't have to tell me twice. Let me shoot one!" Cyborg exclaimed as he rushed over to Speedy.

"Alright, just aim up and shoot." He said as he handed the bow and an arrow to his metallic friend.

Cyborg did as he was told and fired one into the air. After a moment, another colorful explosion went off in the night sky.

Everyone loved watching the fireworks, and they each took a turn firing one off at least once. Raven didn't even put up a fight this time, and took her turn early on. The rest of the time she sat back in the chair, enjoying the beautiful sight and the feeling of all her friends being happy again. Eventually Cyborg joined her, not wanting to be too selfish and firing all the arrows.

"Nice to see everyone enjoying themselves today, huh?" Cyborg asked the empath.

Raven gave a small smile and responded, "More than you know."

They sat in a comfortable silence for a while. They were both so happy to not be going day to day in complete silence. Cyborg knew it wouldn't be like this forever, even tomorrow in fact. He didn't know how to even face his other teammates. He didn't have a good track record already. His thoughts drifted away from the happiness of the moment, and focused on the darkness of tomorrow.

Raven felt her friend's shift in emotion and said to him, "What's on your mind?"

Cyborg knew he'd been caught and said bluntly, "This has all been great, but it's just puttin' off what we need to do later. At some point we're gonna hafta to fight the other Titans, and I have no idea how I'm gonna do that."

Raven nodded. He was right. "I feel the same way."

Cyborg snorted, "Well at least you could stop BB, when he came into the tower. I let Starfire walk right past me. I had the chance to stop her, but I couldn't do it."

"That's not entirely fair. I had the drop on Beast Boy and trapped him before he could even move." Raven said in response.

"You still did something at least." Cyborg muttered.

"I did, but it hurt a lot to do so. Don't beat yourself up over this, Cyborg." Raven said, trying to find words that would help.

After they sat in silence again, Raven thought of something to say again.

"Do you know why I swam with only one dolphin today?" Raven asked her friend.

Caught off guard by the random question, he just shook his head.

"I only swam with that one because he was the happiest out of all of them. I found comfort in his happiness because it reminded me of Starfire and Beast Boy. It was a very innocent joy, which reminded me Starfire, and the happiness was also wild and free, coming from an animal, which reminded me of Beast Boy. I spent the entire time riding with that dolphin pretending to be in the presence of those two." She said quietly to her friend.

Cyborg was surprised by the sudden and profound words that had just come out of her mouth. "Wow Raven, I didn't know."

She nodded back and said. "We're all having a tough time dealing with this. You're not the only one."

Aqualad had heard a small part of the conversation, walked over, and said, "It's okay Cyborg, none of us can do this easily. You're not the only one thinking that."

Cyborg's face brightened by the tiniest fraction. "Thanks guys. You're good teammates."

"That's what we're here for." Aqaulad said with a smile.

He was glad to have such good friends, and he began to feel better. Seeing an opportunity, Cyborg let a small smirk creep up on his face. "Still think your dolphins beat this?" He said right as another firework went off above them.

"It's close." Aqualad replied.

Speedy spoke up before any response could be given. "Last three arrows you guys. How do you guys want this done?"

Mas was the first to respond, "¡Uno explosion grande!" and Menos concurred, "¡Si, los tres a la vez!"

Robin agreed. "Yah, let's do a grand finale with them. That sound good?"

Everyone agreed completely.

Speedy laughed. "You guys are lucky I know how to shoot three at once! Alright, one grand finale coming up."

He notched all three arrows at once, and fired them all up in the air. After a moment, all three went off above them, causing the sky to light up with all sorts of colors. It was a perfect ending for the one perfect day they had since the Titans split. They all cheered and Speedy took a bow.

"Good show, Speedy, that was a brilliant idea." Robin said to his teammate.

"Yah, you made it a close second in today's events." Aqaulad added.

"In your dreams, fish boy, that was way better than your little dolphin friends!" Speedy quickly shot back with a smile.

"Is that so, Robin Hood? We've all seen fireworks before, I don't think any of you guys swam with dolphins before." Aqualad countered.

"Both of you shut up before you ruin the day. They were both okay." Raven said, keeping an argument from erupting.

The two muttered to each other.

"Okay? That's all we get?"

"It's Raven, I'll take it."

"Alright fine."

The entire group began gathering what was brought outside and took it all back in. After putting everything back in their respective places, they once again gathered in the main room. Robin thought it was a good time to address the group while they were all here.

"Today's been a great day, but I'm sad to say that tomorrow won't be the same. We are going to go back to patrolling in the morning, so I suggest we all get some sleep. If you want, you can still stay up, but I'm going to get the most sleep I can. You guys ok with that?"

Everyone nodded their heads.

"Okay, I'll see you guys down here, ready to leave, at 7:00 am. Sound like a plan?"

Again everyone nodded.

"Goodnight everyone, see you in the morning."

They all gave their goodnight wishes and thought that Robin had the right idea of heading to bed early. Soon, everyone was on their way to their own beds to do the same. On the way up to his room, Cyborg was thinking about what tomorrow held. Looking for his friends that had left the team and a chance at having to fight them. He thought back to all his past failures at doing so. He failed at taking on Starfire at the tower. He couldn't pull the trigger on Beast Boy when he turned into the Beast. He couldn't shoot Robin when Slade had him fight them. He couldn't fight his teammates in the past; he can't fight them in the future. He would be lying if he said anything else. Cyborg made a detour back to the Titans' main computer and turned it on.

The next morning, Robin was the first to awaken as usual. He got ready, and went to go down a little earlier than he told his team to meet. Before he did, he saw that there was a message on his computer. He decided that he'd check it before heading down. Clicking on it, he found that it was a video recording that was sent to him last night. Robin pressed play.

"Hey Robin."

Robin paused it, wondering why Cyborg had sent him this message last night. He didn't look too good on the screen, and Robin didn't want to know what this could possibly be about. He hit play again knowing that he had to finish it.

"Bet you're wondering why I sent you this. Well, truth is I couldn't tell you in person. I couldn't tell any of you guys in person. I've been thinking a lot about what's happened over the past few days. I know that things are bad and you need a whole team to fix it, but you also need it to be working team as well."

Cyborg paused and took a deep breath.

"I think I've shown that I was incapable of stopping Starfire at the tower the other day, and that's all I've been able to think about lately. I might not have been able to stop her successfully, but I didn't even put in effort. It was a good thing to give us all a break, because we all needed it badly. Today, or I guess yesterday for you, was awesome, but it just made me think about what was to come later. You need teammates that will be able to do the right thing when that time comes, and seeing how I couldn't do what was necessary..." Cyborg trailed off.

Robin knew what was coming next, but hoped that he was wrong.

"I am unfit for duty. This is my resignation. I hope you will be able to find a replacement quickly, and I know you will. I didn't take the T-Car with me so you guys can use it. Take care of my baby for me. Cyborg… signing off."

The screen went dark, and Robin sat there staring at it.

[End Chapter]

Nooo! How could he do that to the team? Would he even do that to the team? Let me know. How'd you guys like this chapter? I wanted to show how the teams would spend their time apart from each other. Don't worry about Cyborg disappearing from the story; he will still be in it a good amount.

Now time for some shoutouts, starting off with the identity of Cass.

Mr. Guest and RJay Fame, you were correct, but not the fastest. FanficFan920, I applaud you for thinking outside the box, but that is not quite right. Now, let's give a round of applause for the one who answered correctly and the fastest, JP-Ryder!

*Crowd explodes in thunderous applause*

You are awesome for knowing and reviewing so quickly. Cass is indeed Cassandra Sandsmark, aka Wonder Girl, and if you want to get technical, I used the New 52 version. Right now, she stands only as a cameo who is giving the rogue Titans a place to stay, but if you guys like her character, I'll gladly write her into more of the story.

Other reviews:

Dysfunctional-Nom-De-Plume, I like that idea, but I'm not sure if I can use it with the way I have the story going in my head. I'll keep it in mind though.

Apologetic, you are correct in that I depowered the remote, because I needed to make retrieval of the explosives complicated for them.

TheUltimateStar, thank you, you wonderful human being.

And finally, Randomcritic, I'm slightly confused about what exactly you are angry about with Teen Titans. Is it "Teen Titans GO!"? Because if it is, I agree. You also said my intro could be better, so I'd like to know how I could improve it.

One last thing: Did Aqualad or Speedy have the better idea to cheer everyone up? I want to know.

Was my newest chapter Above Average in your book?


	10. Chapter 10

Robin sat on his bed silently until he slowly lowered his head into his hands. He had just lost another teammate. Sure, he might not be going to the other side, but a resignation hurt just the same. He wondered if it was his fault as the leader. Was he doing something wrong? He knew that it was a difference in ideals that drew them apart, but a leader who was good enough could still keep the team together no matter what was happening. He began pouring over every detail of all events that had happened since Control Freak's capture.

 _I put full effort into finding evidence that supported Control Freak claims of innocence, so there was nothing I could do about changing that. My conversation with Starfire could have gone differently, and if I had said the right things, she wouldn't have broken Control Freak out of jail. If I had been strong enough to take the three prisoners back to the police station myself, they wouldn't have gotten free again. If I had stayed stronger and been there for Cyborg, he wouldn't have left the team. If I-_

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Robin? What's going on with you? You're never late to morning meetings" Raven deadpanned through the door.

Late? Robin had woken up early, and had only paused to watch Cyborg's video. He looked over at his clock and saw that it was almost 8:00. He said they would be ready to leave at 7:00 last night. The Titan leader had apparently been sitting on his bed for more than an hour, but didn't even realize that time had gone by.

"Is Cyborg in there with you?" Raven added. "He's not in his room."

Robin cringed. He had to let everyone know about that too, pushed himself off the bed, and slowly walked towards the door. He wish he could just ignore Raven, the team, and the Titans that had left and try again another day, but he knew he had put if off long enough. Robin palmed the door open, and even before the door had slid back into place, he said, "Cyborg resigned."

Raven stared at him. "What do you mean by, resigned?" She asked in a confused tone.

In response, Robin turned around and walked back into his room. Raven paused for a moment, and then followed her leader into his room. He walked over to his laptop, with Cyborg's message still on the screen, and hit play. She watched the video in dead silence. Even as it finished, she still looked quietly at the now darkened screen.

Raven took a moment to gather her thoughts and then looked confidently at her leader. "What's the plan for his replacement?" She asked.

Robin stared back. "There is no plan." He said with a face and voice devoid of all emotion.

"Shut up. You're Robin. You always have a plan. This isn't the time to wallow around in guilt and worry about what could have been different. You're the leader; act like it." The longer she talked, the more confident and strong her words sounded. "So what is the plan?" She finished in an almost angry tone.

Robin's eyes narrowed. She was right. He always did, and this wasn't an excuse. He took a moment, and thought of all other Titans that could be available. In his mind, he made a list of the honorary Titans and went down it.

 _No. No. Maybe. No. Yes._ He stopped at the first name that would most probably come to their aid.

"Kid Flash, should be available for duty. I'll send out a call right after we talk to the rest of the Titans." Robin said back with as much confidence that Raven had just spoken to him with.

She smirked at the result of her firmness with Robin, but it quickly disappeared. "No higher ups? Would the Justice League help us out?" She asked.

Robin looked at her eyes with complete determination. "We don't need them. We'll handle this as Titans."

He turned and walked out the room, ready to take on the problem head on. Raven smiled again. She knew he would react well to a little mention of the Justice League. He would strive to prove all of them wrong, especially Batman. She followed Robin out of the room, and the two went down to the main room. As soon as they came through the doors, Robin was already talking.

"Okay team, I have received news from Cyborg himself, that he has resigned from the team." He paused only for a small moment to let it register in his teammates' minds, but continued quickly. "I already know that we can call in Kid Flash for back-up, and once we finish here I will do exactly that. He will be able to replace Cyborg's place on the team, and we will still go out on patrol as a team. Is that clear everyone?"

The Titans just looked at their leader silently for a moment. "What are you saying, Cyborg resigned? I didn't even know we could do that." Speedy responded in disbelief.

"It is, and he did. We still have a mission to do." Robin said back.

"Alright, you're the boss." Speedy said with a shrug.

Robin looked at each of his teammates in the eyes, saying, "We will get through this. We just need to stay together and stay strong. Now let's go contact Kid Flash."

The other Titans just nodded in agreement. They were affected by the news that their leader had given them, but his determination and strength made them feel like they would be okay. Robin walked away to contact Kid Flash and the rest of the team followed. As they walked to the Titans' computer, Raven thought that it was good to see that Robin had fully recovered and was back to his normal self. She knew his mood had genuinely improved, but she couldn't say the same for herself. Cyborg was their rock, and she couldn't just get over him leaving. She noticed that everyone had stopped walking and looked up to see that Kid Flash was currently being dialed. Kid Flash answered on the fifth ring, and appeared on the giant screen.

"You've reached the fastest kid on earth, how may I be of assistance for you today?" He said with a cocky smile.

"Kid Flash, we need you here in Jump City." Robin said, getting straight to the point.

"Ooh, about that. So I'm a little busy right now and-hey!" the screen blurred as the communicator was taken out of Kid Flash's hand. When it came back into focus, the screen showed an irritated Jinx.

"He's off limits right now." Jinx said curtly.

Kid Flash appeared next to Jinx and said, "Sorry, but her majesty has spoken."

Robin needed his teammate right now, and wasn't going to back down easily. "I'm sorry if we're intruding, but this is an emergency, and we really need you right now."

In response, Jinx held the camera further away and higher and said, "Do you see what's behind us right now?"

Behind the two heroes loomed the Eiffel Tower. Jinx continued on knowing that they didn't need to give a response. "We are preoccupied at the moment. Try again in a few days and he's all yours, but for now, he's mine." She finished with a smile.

"I get that you're on vacation, but we really need him." Robin paused as he looked Kid Flash in the eyes. "We need you, Wally."

Kid Flash knew that there was trouble. Real names weren't used very often, and the look that Robin had on his face was sincere. He knew that there was a problem, and he knew he was needed in Jump City now. He planted a kiss on Jinx's cheek and said, "Be back in a flash."

Jinx turned to him and said, "Oh no you-" but he took off before she could finish her sentence. Kid Flash disappeared off the screen. There was dead silence for a few seconds, as the team looked at Jinx on the screen as she let out a sigh. Then Kid Flash appeared next to the team in Titans' Tower.

Jinx knew he was a hero, and it was his job to do this. She looked at Kid Flash, who was now on the screen of her communicator, waving tentatively, and said, "I'm gonna go eat lots of food and take my time doing so. You better mean 'back in a flash.'"

Kid Flash shot her a wink and said, "You know it, baby."

Jinx closed the communicator, and the screen in Titan's tower went black.

Kid flash looked around the room at his fellow teammates and said, "Yah, so I'm on a time limit, and I think she means she wants me back by the time she finishes eating, so let's get to work people. Robin, hit me with the facts."

Robin didn't miss a beat. "We've had multiple teammates go rogue and are now helping the criminal, Control Freak. They are somewhere in the city right now, and we need your help finding them."

Kid flash was wide-eyed in astonishment. "No kidding. This really is an emergency. Who all is involved?" He asked.

"You'll be looking for Starfire, Beast Boy, and Bumble Bee along with Control Freak." Robin replied.

"Okay, I'll find them. You said just somewhere in the city?" Kid Flash asked his leader.

Robin nodded and the speedster smirked back and said, "Piece of cake." Kid flash disappeared in a flurry of wind, leaving the rest of the Titans standing in the tower.

Across town, the rogue Titans were just exiting Cass's apartment. They were all glad to finally get out and start doing something for a change.

Beast Boy stretched and said way too loudly, "Aw yeah! Time to go find some explosives!"

Bumble Bee smacked him on the back of the head to quiet him and said, "Could you shut it? We're tryin' to keep a low profile here."

Beast Boy rubbed the back of his head saying, "Right. Sorry about about that."

The rest of the group was now outside, Cass remained inside with the rest of the team not wanting to put her in any more danger, and they all gathered around Control Freak.

"In what manner will we best be able to find the explosives, Control Freak?" Starfire asked.

Control Freak had spent the entire time they spent in Cass's apartment figuring out the best way to do this. He brought them all into a huddle and started talking. As they drew in close, a gust of wind blew by them all, but quickly receded.

Control Freak started telling his plan "I know the perfect plan. Phase one, we go to the house or building closest to the art museum, and using the remote-"

"You mean, this remote?" a voice said behind them.

The group of lawbreakers turned around and saw a certain speedster in yellow and red holding Control Freak's remote. They all stood in silence, because they had no idea what he knew about the situation. Kid Flash continued speaking seeing that no one was going to answer.

"Funny thing you guys." He started walking towards them as he spoke. "I was at the tower and a little birdie, you know Robin, told me that you guys are helping Control Freak. I'm newer to this hero thing than you guys are, but I'm pretty sure that that's not what superheroes do. I wanna know your side of the story, before I bring little Robbie back here."

They continued to stare at Kid Flash as he now stood right in front of them. Apparently, he knew everything and was now in Jump City. Starfire spoke up.

"You say that we help Control Freak, and that is not something that a superhero does. Tell me, is helping those in need not something that superheroes do?"

That made Kid Flash think. "Well yah, but he's a bad guy." He said less confident then he was before.

"What is the difference? If there is someone who needs help, we will help." Starfire paused and for in moment realization. "What of Jinx? Was she not someone who needed your help?"

That made Kid Flash stop completely. She was right. He didn't know the reason behind these Titans siding with Control Freak, so how could he judge them for helping a criminal. He had done the same thing before. Albeit, Jinx was rather cute and Control Freak was the exact opposite of cute, but that really didn't have anything to do with the situation.

"Alright, you got me. Why are you guys helping Control Freak?" Kid Flash asked, now having a completely open mind to whatever they had to say.

Beast Boy was the first to answer and did so rather enthusiastically. "Dude! So everyone is after Control Freak, cuz they think he killed someone, well he did, but he did it because the guy had a bomb! Even then he wasn't even tyin' to kill him, he just wanted to get the bomb off the guy, by zapping it into a t.v., but he took the dudes chest with it. Now we are tryin' to clear Control Freak's name by finding those explosives in one of the t.v's in the city!"

Bumble Bee jumped in and added in a much more even voice, "And there's this new mayor, and he instated the death penalty for all costumed bad guys. So if we let Control Freak get caught, they'll kill him. The idiot mayor already killed three other guys."

Kid Flash looked at them with a hand on is chin. "So, you're telling me, that Control Freak's innocent of his crimes, and you're saving his life from someone that you think is bad that is trying to kill him?"

The three teen superheroes nodded back enthusiastically.

Kid Flash looked directly at Control Freak and said, "If that's not the definition of a hero, I don't know what is."

"Sooo… are you still gonna turn us in to Robin." Beast Boy asked timidly.

Kid Flash pondered that thought for a long time. Well, he knew what his answer was immediately, but he wanted the rest of them to sweat it out.

Finally, he looked at the rest of the Titans and said, "Nah."

They all let go of the breaths that they were holding in huge sighs of relief.

"But tomorrow," Kid Flash said, causing them to cease breathing yet again. "I still won't."

Again, they collectively sighed.

"In fact, I think I'll help out." He said with a giant grin. "It would be a low blow to just wash my hands of all this and leave. Not to mention hypocritical if I turned you all in for helping out a criminal."

Starfire flew forward and swept the speedster into a huge hug. As she did so, Bumble Bee leaned over to Beast Boy and whispered, "I guess that's sorta the initiation to be a part of our rag-tag team. You gotta be hugged by Starfire to become one of us."

Beast Boy chuckled, "That's funny, I think it should be official."

After Kid Flash was deposited back on the ground, he told all of his new teammates, "Okay, everyone back at the tower is expecting a report back from me, so I'm gonna head back and buy us some time to go search for those explosives you mentioned. While I'm there, want me to deliver a message to anyone back home?"

Nobody expected such a thing could be done. Now, they had a chance to talk to their friends that were now on the opposite side. They immediately thought what they wanted to say to those back at the tower.

Bumble Bee was the first to speak, "Just give my boys a punch on the arm for me, Kid."

"Can do." Kid Flash answered and turned to the next person. "Beast Boy?"

Beast Boy tapped his chin and then responded, "Say what's up to Cyborg for me, and tell Raven…" but he paused not sure if he wanted to have something said to her. "Actually never mind, don't say anything to her." He finished with a blush.

"If you say so, Beastie Boy." He responded with a shrug.

He turned to the final Titan and looked at her expectantly.

Starfire was staring at the concrete beneath her feet. She had never thought she would be able to send a message to her friends. It had been so hard to walk away from them, but she could put up with it, because she could not see how they were handling things without her.

Starfire replied without taking her eyes off the ground. "I have no message for my friends, thank you, but if something must be said, I say 'hello.'"

"Alright then, princess. I'll do all of that for you guys. Be back in just a sec." Kid Flash said before disappearing in a gust of wind.

Back at the tower, the Titans were all still were gathered in the main room.

"Why are we all waiting in here again?" Aqualad asked Robin.

"Because Kid Flash left without a communicator, so it would be impossible to find him or communicate with him. It would be easier to wait for him to report back here instead. He shouldn't be too much longer." The team leader replied.

"If you say so." Speedy replied while spinning an arrow in his hand. "You sure he's gonna be solid? It seems everyone these days refuses to work with us."

I trust him. He may have just been helping out the Titans recently, but I've known him a while. We were some of the first sidekicks on the scene." Robin said back confidently.

A moment later, Kid Flash rushed back into the room, and everyone jumped at his sudden appearance.

"Hey everyone. I would just like to inform you that I, Kid Flash, fastest kid alive, who is loved and ad-"

"Oh, shut it, and just tell what you found." Raven cut off with little patience left in her.

Kid Flash put his hands up in front of him "Alright, alright, no need to get angry there, Raven. It's hard not to give such an introduction when I'm just so amazing."

Raven rolled her eyes and muttered, "That sounds like such a burden."

Robin, on the other hand, was itching to hear the news. "What's your report."

Kid Flash shrugged. "Nothin' much. Just that I found all of them, and know their plan."

They all stared at the speedster, some of them with mouths hanging open. He had done in less than ten minutes, what they had been trying to accomplish for the past few days.

"Yup, and they all have some messages for you guys." Kid Flash added.

Robin shook himself out of his stupor. "You found them, and they have messages for us?"

Kid Flash nodded. "Bumble Bee told me to do this."

Kid Flash took off quicker than lightning, and went to each Titans East member. He landed a solid punch on one of their arms, and when his fist connected with them, they each gave a little yelp of surprise and pain. He returned to his original spot as the others rubbed their arms. "Sounds like Bumble Bee to me." Speedy said as he winced.

"Starfire gives a collective hello, and Beast Boy says what's up to, to…" He started whipping his head to look around the room. "Where's Cyborg?"

Robin's face fell slightly. "He resigned. That's why we called you in for back up. You left too quickly for us to tell you that."

"Wow. That sucks." Kid Flash looked away from Robin, but as he did his eyes fell on Raven. "Well, Beast Boy also says hey to you too."

Raven arched a brow at the speedster. "Really?" She said with little emotion.

Kid Flash thought back to exactly what the shape shifter told him. _Tell Raven…. Actually never mind, don't say anything to her._ "Yes, yes he did."

Raven nodded slowly back. She didn't think that he would have wanted to say anything to her, but it was a nice surprise.

Kid Flash turned to the rest of the Titans. "Well that's all I got from them, but as I said earlier, I know their plan, so we need to act now, and I have something in mind. Do you guys keep duct tape here in the tower?"

Robin was confused by the response, but answered any way. "Uh, yah. There should be a lot in the garage. Why?"

"Oh, nothing." Kid Flash said. "And knockout gas?"

Robin was again thrown off by the question. "Red box in the armory. Why do you need to know this? Is it part of your plan to capture them."

"Just curious." Was the speedster's response before taking off at full speed. He appeared less than a second later right next to Raven holding a gas canister. "No reason." He said right as he opened it right in front of the empath's face.

The sudden movement made Raven take a sharp breath in. She instantly felt drowsy and began to fall like a rock to the floor, already losing consciousness.

 _Time to get to work._ Speedy thought to himself before taking off faster than lightning.

He sped towards the twins first and moved them away from each other, because he didn't want them to come chasing after him. He then took off in search of the Titan's garage, all the while he thought to himself,

 _Okay, garage. That would be at the ground floor, or would it be under ground? Let's see, I'm not seeing it anywhere over here… Ahah! Found it! It was underground! Why do we always have to be so fancy as heroes? Now where is that duct tape? In these shelves? No. By the T-Car? No. Is it in one of these boxes? No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Yes! Wait, no, that's just masking tape. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. How about these boxes over here? No. No. No. No. No. Yes! Alright got the duct tape. Wow, Robin wasn't kidding about having a lot. I mean, what is this? A 32 pack? How does a person even need this much duct tape. Well, Beast Boy does live here, and duct tape fixes everything. At least I don't have to worry about running out. Now let's get back up there and get to work on our Titans. Alright twins first. Mas, you're gonna go nicely right on this wall over here. You're a small guy so it shouldn't take to much to make you stick to the wall. Let's make sure your arms are nice and secure, the legs too, aaaaand done! Your turn Menos. Let's put you on this wall over here so you're nice and far away from your brother. What's brother in Spanish? No idea. Alright Let me put a few more strips to on to make sure you're not going anywhere, aaaaand now you're done too! Whose next? I don't trust Robin, I'll get him next. Let's move you over to a chair. No utility belt for you young man! I'll set this over on the counter. Alright, now let's get going to make sure you won't be going anywhere. I'll start with the legs, now let me get the the waist, let me make sure those arms are nice and secure, and I think that's enough duct tape, but your also Robin. Let's put a little more on. You also probably have some secret weapons or something incase you lose you're belt too. Let me check. Nothing in the gloves, cape looks clear, now the boots. Ahah! You sly dog, Robin. Don't want you to use that to get out. And is this another one in your other boot? Sneaky, sneaky there, Boy Wonder. I think you're all clear. Wait. That's a lot of hair on your head there. Is there are reason behind having all that, per say, as a way to hide weapons incase you get stuck? No that's ridiculous. You wouldn't do that would you? Well, now I have to check because it's in my mind. Aaaaand nope, nothing. That's good, I thought that would be crossing a line into paranoia. Oh, now your hair is messed up! I'll fix it for you, no thanks necessary. Now you are 100% done my friend. Let's move to Speedy next. Alright my archer friend, let's take those weapons off you and put them over here next to the utility belt. Alright, now you're just a normql guy so it shouldn't take too much, right? I'll play it safe. Should I put you in a chair as well or leave you standing? I kinda want to see if you can stay standing even if you're taped up. Is that cruel? Nah, it'll be funny. Now let's do this! Legs secured? Check. Arms? Check. Making sure you're nice and straight so you won't instantly tip over? Check. I believe you are now finished my friend. And last, but definitely not least, we have you Aqualad. Let's see, as an Atlantean I think that means you have super strength, so extra duct tape for you young man. I'll grab another chair for you. I want Speedy to be confused as to why he's the only one standing. Now let's sit you down and secure the legs, secure the chest, and now the arms. I think you won't be able to get out of that without leverage, but just to make sure, I'll add another roll just incase. Any other powers? You can control water too, so let me leave for the moment and cut off all water in the tower. Let's see, that should be in the basement, right? Away we go! Wow, it's dark in here. Don't want to run into anything at super speed now. Is it over over here? No. Is it over-oh it's right here. Aaaaand I think that should do it. Now let's get back up there to make sure everyone's nice and comfy. Speedy? Check. Mas? Check. Menos? Check. Aqualad? Check. Robin? I do have some duct tape left, might as well make sure he's not going anywhere. Now, check. And Raven? Better make sure she won't hit the ground._

Kid Flash ran up and caught Raven before she was even close to the ground, and set her down on the sofa.

He then stopped, and waited for everyone's reaction.

"No, Raven! Huh?"

"Wait, how did I get here?"

"¿Por qué estoy pegado a la pared?"

"Is this duct tape?"

"Why am I taped to a chair?"

"Why are you guys taped to a chair, but I'm standing?"

"Kid Flash! Why did you do this?"

Kid Flash smiled. They all reacted in a humorous way, and Speedy had noticed the difference. It was a good plan in it's entirety, and it worked perfectly.

"Why, Robin I'm hurt by this accusation! How do you know that I'm the one who did this?" Kid Flash said in very hurt voice.

"I trusted you, Wally!" Robin yelled back.

"Yah, well sorry about that. It's not my fault you guys sided with the crazy mayor." Kid Flash quipped back.

"He's not crazy! He's getting results in this city!" Speedy loudly protested.

Kid Flash walked over to Speedy and said with a chuckle, "Careful there. Don't get too angry, or you might fall over."

Robin yelled again. "You just made a big mistake!"

"Considering I could have just punched you all the face instead of going through all of this effort, I'd say I was very generous. Now you guys sit tight. I'm sure Raven will wake up in the next few hours, and she'll untie you all, but for now, ta-ta." Kid Flash said with a wave, before zooming out of the tower.

Kid Flash sprinted back to where he first found the rogue Titans, outside Cass's apartment. He had no idea which room they were all in, so he stood and looked at it for a moment, scrathing his head. He heard a sharp whistle and looked up to see Bumble Bee give a short wave from one of the windows. He gave a small salute and ran up the side of the building, went though the window, and stood in front of the rest of his teammates.

"Hey everyone, miss me?" He asked with a raise of the eyebrows.

"Dude, you were gone for like ten minutes." Beast Boy said back.

Kid Flash shot him a grin. "I don't know how you can survive being apart from me for so long."

Beast Boy shook his head as he chuckled.

Starfire was dying to know what happened and jumped in front of the speedster. "Tell me of what has transpired in our home." She said excitedly.

"Well, I said 'hi' to everyone for you guys, and then I duct taped everyone to a chair, a wall, or just standing straight to buy us a few hours of searching without the other Titans getting in the way." Kid Flash informed them all.

"You DUCT TAPED them?!" Beast Boy yelled back.

"Uh, yah." Kid Flash replied with a shrug.

Bumble Bee broke into such hard laughter that she almost started crying. Cass found the idea hilarious, but could contain her laughter much better than her friend. Control Freak liked Kid Flash's style and nodded in approval. Beast Boy just stood in a stupor. He had always that it would be awesome to try a stunt like that, but never dreamed someone would have actually done it. Starfire just looked at Kid Flash with a confused look.

"You have attached water fowl to our past teammates to apprehend them?" She asked asked.

Bumble Bee had just started to compose herself, but she was once again sent over the edge, and this time, Cass joined her. "Water Fowl? WATER FOWL?" She gasped between fits of laughter.

"Wait, What? Oh, no, no duct not duck. It's just a really strong type of tape." Kid Flash filled in.

Starfire nodded back. "That does make more sense, but how does Raven not easily escape from this powerful adhesive?"

Kid Flash blushed for a moment and spoke, "Well, I kinda used some of Robin's knock out gas on her instead, because I knew she could escape the tape."

"You used knock out gas on Raven?" Beast Boy asked incredulously, "She's almost thrown me out of the window for accidently spilling my drink on her shoe! She's gonna want to murder you when she wakes up, dude!"

Kid Flash gave a soft laugh. "Oops. Guess I'm in trouble now." He said with raised shoulders. "Don't even worry though, I told her you said 'hi' before I did. Not like like an ending of an action movie where the hero tells the villain that his friend that the villain had killed previously, says 'hi' all menacingly right before he pulls the trigger. It was much more friendly and way before I knocked her out."

"Wait, but I didn't tell you to say 'hi' for me!" Beast Boy said, while wildly gesturing and pacing around the room. "I told you not to say anything to her!" After a momentary pause he asked at a quieter level, "But what did say back?"

Kid Flash chuckled. "She asked if you really did say that, to which I said yes, and then she just kinda went quiet and had a distant look in her eye."

Beast Boy covered his face with his hands and spoke from from behind them, "She probably hates me, that's why." He let his hands drop and continued, "Well what did Cyborg say at least?"

Kid Flash's smile faded quickly. "Actually, when I got there to say 'what's up' for you I didn't see him. When I asked about why he wasn't there, Robin told me that he resigned."

Starfire looked at the speedster in the eyes, and said in a voice of disbelief, "Cyborg has resigned?"

Bumble Bee's laughter quickly died out and she looked up yelling, "Sparky quit?!"

Kid Flash nodded solemnly. "I'm here because they called me in as a replacement. I didn't know till just then."

Control Freak snorted. "Well that backfired for them."

"No kidding." Kid Flash responded while shaking his head.

"I can't believe he quit." Beast Boy said ever so quietly. The last time he saw his best friend, he looked like he wasn't handling things well, but he didn't expect that to happen. He looked up at everyone, needing a good distraction. "Okay, all the Titans are stuck, so let's go and look for the bomb." He said morosely.

Kid Flash nodded. "Sounds like a plan, BB, and I think that I can help out a ton with that, but I've gotta go do something first. You guys head out, and I'll catch up to you."

Bumble Bee, now much more serious, responded, "Okay, see you in a little while. Let's all head out." She motioned, and everyone moved to leave with her. "See you back here later, Cass." She called out as she walked out the door.

"Okay, girl!" Cass yelled back.

Everyone was now back outside, and with a salute, Kid Flash took off. He was across country in a second, and in Europe in three. He went back to France, into Paris, and began searching all eating establishments around the Eifel Tower. He found Jinx at a very nice looking café, halfway through a meal. He quickly sat down and joined her. "Hey there, gorgeous."

Jinx nodded with pleased look on her face. "That was faster than I expected."

Kid Flash ducked his head, and hesitantly responded, "Yah about that, I'm gonna need to stay in jump for a while, and I have no idea how long I need to stay there."

Jinx cocked her eyebrow at the speedster and after rolling her eyes said, "Fine, we can head back there for a while, but we're coming right back, okay? It's not like we need to buy plane tickets."

Kid Flash, really didn't want to say what he had to next. "Actually, I don't want you coming there with me." He said, already cringing for what was to come.

Jinx just stared at him and blinked a few times before responding. "Excuse me?"

Kid Flash let out a huge sigh. "Look, there's been this new mayor that's come to town, and he's killing costumed villains. I don't want to risk bringing you back there while he's running the show. I can't put you in that danger."

Jinx scoffed at him. "Danger? Like I've never been in danger before."

Kid Flash shook his head. "It's different this time. The Titan's are split right now, and I'm helping out one side. If you come, Robin might come after you, and you won't just be put in prison." Kid Flash paused for a moment as he looked into Jinx's eyes. "You'll be killed. Now, I'll drop you off anywhere in world you'd like except Jump city."

Jinx knew that this was different this time. She would never back down, but she had never seen Kid Flash act this way; he was never this serious, ever. "Okay, I've got distant family up in Keystone City. You can take me there, and I'll be safe."

"I won't take you with me it's too- wait. Did you just agree with me?" Kid Flash asked in astonishment. He was ready to go to war with the enchantress on this one, but she had already backed down.

Jinx nodded back. "Yah, you can take me to Keystone City."

Kid flash shrugged and just went with it. "Keystone City it is, then."

After getting more exact directions, they arrived at the city a few seconds later, he set down his girl and asked, "Is this the place?"

Jinx looked at the nice house in the suburbs of the sprawling city. It had been a long time, but she still remembered the place. "Yup, this it it." She turned back to face the one that single-handedly turned her into a superhero. "You be safe, okay?"

Kid Flash pulled her close and with a winning smile said, "No promises."

The two leaned in simultaneously and shared a long lasting kiss. They knew it would be a while before they would see each other again. Finally pulling away in need of oxygen, Kid Flash hit Jinx with one more dazzling smile.

"Be back in a flash." He said as he took off.

After he disappeared Jinx shook her head. "That's so cliché. Why does he always have to say that?"

Back in Jump City, Kid Flash had just found the rest of the group. None of the heroes needed to hide, but Control Freak did, and that slowed them down considerably.

"Hey, how's the work going?" He asked, after suddenly appearing almost out of thin air.

As everyone kept their criticism to themselves, Starfire happily replied, "We are making the progress!"

"That's one way to put it." Bumble Bee said under her breath.

"I believe I'll be able to speed up the process." Kid Flash said with a smile that never seemed to leave his face. He turned to Control Freak and said, "I need you to give me a crash course in how you're looking for the explosives."

Over the next five minutes, Control Freak broke it down completely, and Kid Flash took in every word.

"I think I've got it." He said extended out a hand towards Control Freak. "May I?"

Control Freak handed the remote over to Kid Flash, and he took off running.

"So do we just wait here for him now?" Beast Boy asked. "I think we've gotten pretty good at that now."

"Ain't that the truth." Bumble said in agreement.

"Indeed." Starfire concurred as well.

It wasn't thirty seconds later, when Kid Flash returned. Seeing that he wasn't carrying any explosives, they knew he hadn't found what they were looking for.

"So I only got through 127 t.v's before the remote conked out on me, and seeing that it's not smoking, I don't think it over heated. I thought it was out of batteries, so I went to go replace them, but when I opened this baby up, I saw that it doesn't take good ol' AA's." Kid Flash informed them all.

"Of course it's gotta run out of juice!" Control Freak said loudly in frustration. "That power source is incredibly hard to come by! I don't know if you guys have heard of it before, but it runs on a power source called Xinothium."

[End Chapter]

Uh-oh. What (or should I say who) does that mean? How are the Titans handling their "sticky" situation? Hahaha, I have no friends...

Wow, I gotta say this was the most fun I've had writing a chapter for this story! I hope you liked it, cuz I had a blast writing it! Sorry that I'm now updating every five days now, but things are getting serious as finals are now looming in the near future, and I think I'm gonna have to keep with this five-day update schedule.

As always, thank you for reviewing, favoriting, and following! You guys are so amazing!

I'm keeping this speech short for today. Ax4 (I have decided that is how I will refer to myself) signing off!

I think this one might be the best one yet, but was it Above Average in your book?


	11. Chapter 11

Beast Boy and Starfire looked at each other. They definitely knew what Xinothium was, in fact they knew more about it than they wished they did. There was a lot of terrible memories that went hand and hand with that molecule.

Starfire looked at Control Freak. "Yes, Beast Boy and I are familiar with this substance named Xinothium."

Control Freak was slightly surprised; it was very uncommon. "Huh, wouldn't have guessed that any of you did. What about you other three?"

All three shook their heads. Control Freak was correct in saying that it was a fairly rare substance. Starfire and Beast Boy were unfortunate for coming in contact with such a thing.

"Anyway," Control Freak started again. "I still know a supplier, but I don't know how coroportive he will be, considering the new rules of Jump City. He never was a very brave person from the start."

Beast Boy spoke up. "His name wouldn't happen to be Professor Chang would it."

Control Freak nodded. "Huh, you two really do know a lot about this stuff. I'm curious as to why?"

"Maybe we will tell the story another time, friends. Let us focus on the task of acquiring more as of right now." Starfire said, not really wanting to talk about the subject.

Control Freak conceded that it could wait. "Yah sure, but I do eventually want to here about it. Now, I know where this guy is based out of, hoping he hasn't moved in a while, so we might as well head over there now."

Everyone nodded. There was no point to putting it off, so they might as well get on with it. They quickly started off on Control Freak's directions to begin tracking down more Xinothium.

Back in Titan's Tower, the occupants were still trying to escape their duct tape shackles, but very little progress was being made. Right after Kid Flashes exit, Speedy was the first to try to free himself, seeing that he was standing. He quickly found that Kid Flash had bound him so tightly and to such an extant, that the only movement he could muster, was lifting himself onto his toes. His ankles had been taped in such a way he couldn't even move his feet from side to side. After a few tries, and almost ending up falling onto his face after each attempt, Speedy gave up. Seeing that Speedy was not even close to being able to escape, the other three conscious heroes looked to Robin to be the to escape, and he was trying very hard to do so. Robin had been shifting his weight around to loosen the tape little by little the entire time since the speedster left. His right hand now could move slightly and could be moved closer to his boot. If only he could get his laser cutter that rested right inside the edge of it. After much time and effort, he had loosened the tape enough to reach it.

"Alright, I've got it." But the more his fingers felt around, he noticed that it actually was not there. "Wait, where is it? I always keep it right here." Robin said in confusion.

"Keep what?" Aqualad said from his chair.

"My laser cutter, it's always…" Robin trailed off realizing what the only reason could be for its disappearance. "Kid Flash took it off me when he taped me up."

Robin went dead quiet. Aqualad, Speedy and the twins were fearful as to what that could mean. Robin just sat still and stared straight ahead.

"Uh, Robin?" Speedy asked tentatively.

Robin continued to sit there silently looking forward. He knew that if he found this one, his other had to be gone as well. It was a painful realization that Kid Flash had beat him through and through. Robin had been captured and tied up on so many occasions, he lost count after fifty. He had escaped from every single one of them, and now for the first time ever, he couldn't escape. What made it even worse was that he was just duct taped to a chair. He had been chained upside down hanging over a tank of sharks and had been able to escape without breaking a sweat. Now one of his closest friends had succeeded in what many of Gotham's most infamous villains had failed. That was the final straw that broke Robin.

All other prisoners in the room cringed as Robin spewed out all profanity and insult he learned over his entire life. He loudly yelled everything that came to his mind as he threw his head back and forth violently. No one was safe from Robin's words. He cursed Control Freak for murdering someone and making a division in his team, Starfire for breaking Control Freak out of jail, Beast Boy for joining her, Bumble Bee for freeing them, but most of all Kid Flash for being able to fully apprehend him. After a few minutes, Robin settled back down, taking in deep breaths. Even then, his teammates were hesitant to speak to him again.

"Glad you got that out of your system." Speedy said with the smallest of chuckles, still shocked that Robin had such a colorful vocabulary.

"Raven will wake up at any time, and she'll let all of us out. So they've bought themselves a few hours, no big deal." Aqualad added.

"Si, es un no gran problema." Mas said as Menos nodded in agreement.

Robin could do nothing but listen to his teammates and wait.

"And at least you're taped to a chair so you're legs aren't getting tired." Speedy said with a smile. He looked over at the speedsters on opposite ends of the room. "Or stuck to the wall."

Robin was now back in control of his emotions. They were right; They were only stuck for a few hours, if that. They'd be able to jump right back onto the trail of the other Titans soon enough. Just waiting though was something that Robin was never good at. His mind was still trying to think of ways to escape. Aqualad hadn't really made an attempt yet, so he pondered different ways the Atlantean could escape. Robin realized that he had his super strength, but he could also control water.

He quickly turned to Aqualad, causing his teammates to jump slightly from his sudden and unexpected movement. "Do you think you can reach the water from the sink behind you, or maybe find pipes running close by?" He asked.

Aqualad's eyes widened. "Yah. I don't know why I didn't think of that?" He said, slightly disappointed in himself.

Aqualad closed his eyes and focused on pulling the water towards him. It felt off for some reason, almost as if he couldn't sense any water nearby. He tried hard, but wasn't able to pull a drop in his direction. Aqualad opened his eyes again and looked back at his leader.

"Uh, Robin? Did you turn the water off to the tower?" He asked.

Robin shook his head. "No. The water should be on. I don't know why it would be off; the only reason I can think of is if..." he trailed off for a moment. Of course the speedster had, apparently he had thought of everything. "Kid Flash turned it off. I'm guessing the ocean is too far away from up here?"

Aqualad solemnly nodded back. "There's a chance I could, but I would need my hands to focus on it, and I can't quite do that right now."

Everyone went silent again. They were now completely out of ideas of how to escape their duct ape shackles.

"Well, I guess we just get to wait for Raven then." Speedy said aloud to confirm their fate. Another thought entered the archer's head and he turned to Robin, saying, "Hey isn't knock out gas, like, way less affective than it is in movies and that kind of stuff? Doesn't it just knock people out for a few seconds in real life?"

Robin nodded back slowly. "Yah, it was up until Batman found out how to make gas that actually made people go unconscious for hours. Kid Flash is right; we're stuck here until Raven wakes up."

The Titans looked down, dejected that they were completely powerless to do anything else but wait.

Across town, a lone figure walked down the street. He drew stares from those who walked by, some pointed excitedly. Some approached him for conversation or a signature, but they were all turned away. Today was not a good for Cyborg, one of the worst actually, and the fans approaching him, made him feel even worse. He was not a hero; he left his team, and that's not what heroes do. His teammates needed him, but he was unable to be there for them. Cyborg thought that if he wasn't able to commit to capturing the rogue Titans, then he was a waste of space on the team. They probably had replaced him already with someone who could do something right for a change. He walked down the streets of the city he had sworn to protect, knowing that he had failed it. He had no idea where he was going, but he could not stay in the tower any longer. He could probably get a free room at a hotel just because he was a Titan. As he contemplated where he would spend the night, a very expensive looking car pulled up right next to the Titan. Cyborg noticed it immediately, the BMW S6 G-Power Hurricane was one of his favorite cars, and he loved the all black color with tinted windows. He saw the window roll down and approached the car intending to talk to the owner.

"I gotta say that you have one nice- What?" Cyborg pulled up short, stunned that he already knew the owner. "What are you doing in Jump, and why are you driving such a nice car, Jericho?"

The blonde teen smiled back and signed to Cyborg.

"Sorry man, I don't know sign language." Cyborg said apologetically.

Jericho shook it off and reached inside the glove box to pull out a pen and notebook pad. He always kept one nearby, because he knew that very people did indeed know sign language. He wrote on it for a moment, and turned it around to show Cyborg. The Note read, "Need a ride?"

"In this baby? You know it!" Cyborg said as he entered the vehicle.

As the two Titan's took off, the group of law-breaking Titans approached the back door of a what appeared to be a very run down Laundromat.

"Are you sure this is it?" Bumble Bee asked.

Control Freak nodded back. "The run down look is just for appearances, I'm sure were at the right place. Now just let me do the talking."

He walked forward and knocked on the door. The Titans moved off to the sides, so Control Freak was the only standing in front of the entrance. After a few moments, a small opening slid open at eye level.

"Why are you here? I am not doing business right now. Go away." said a voice that Starfire and Beast Boy recognized from behind the door.

Before the opening closed again, Control Freak spoke "This is an emergency. I really need some Xinothium right now, Professor Chang. No one will know, you'll be safe still."

"You are not worth the risk. The entire city is looking for you. Good bye." Chang said right before slamming the opening closed.

Control Freak turned to face his teammates. When he did, Bumble Bee spoke, "I'm glad we let you do the talking. You handled that well."

Control Freak just shrugged back. "Well that's the only source I know. I'm out of ideas."

The Titans were also out of ideas. The only other source that they knew had a connection with the power source was unreachrable.

"This is our only option then." Starfire said as she approached the door.

When everyone expected her to just knock again, she surprised them all by just tearing the door open and entering the room. When she did so, Chang jumped back from the sound of the door being open and saw the Titan enter. He was terrified as to why a hero was now in his lab.

Chang quickly fell down to the ground in a submissive position. He knew he could not possibly beat the Tamaranean. "Please do not bring me in to the police! You saw that I turned Control Freak away. I am not selling anything right now. I am not breaking the law. Please do not turn me in!" He pleaded from his knees as soon as he saw the heroes enter forcefully.

"I am not here to do the arresting of you, Chang, we are here of our own accord, in need of Xinothium." She said as she offered her hand to the man on his knees.

"You are not going to arrest me?" He said as he took the alien's hand.

"We are not." Starfire said as she pulled the villain back to his feet.

"Why are you with Control Freak then, if not to use him as bait?" The evil doctor asked.

"We are helping him because he is not guilty of the crime they have said he has committed, and I apologize for the breaking of the door, but we are in most urgent need of the power source." The alien continued.

Chang thought about what was being said to him and said, "I still can not help you. I do not have any more of it. I have run out, but I do not want to steal more and risk getting captured."

Starfire's face fell. It truly was a dead end.

Kid Flash said from behind her, "But you do know where some is though, right?"

Chang thought for a moment. "I do, but what do I get out of it?" he said, still wanting to get a profit out of the situation.

"You get not-being-turned-into-the-police." Bumble Bee said.

Chang knew that they had him in a corner. "I accept these terms. Let me show you where you may acquire Xinothium."

Chang took them in the back, and showed them where they could acquire the resource they were searching for. As Chang gave them the information, Kid Flash thought of something that needed to be done. He found some tools, and repaired the door at super speed. When they all left, they were able to close the door behind them.

"Why did you say we would turn him in? We can't even do that right now." Beast Boy asked Bumble Bee.

"I know that, but Chang didn't." Bumble Bee said with a smirk.

Beast Boy slowly nodded back. "Huh, I guess you're right."

"Now let's go get some Xinothium! The Titans are gonna be after us again soon, so we gotta do as much as we can while they're out." Bumble Bee said, turning to the rest of her team.

Kid Flash spoke up. "I can carry you guys one at a time there if we want to get there fast." He said, but when his eyes fell on Control Freak, he added, "I think."

"It is worth trying!" Starfire said enthusiastically as she jumped into Kid Flash's arms.

Caught slightly off guard, Kid Flash took a moment to keep himself focused on the job at hand instead of the beautiful girl in his arms, before zooming off in the direction of the Xinothium. He knew Jinx would kill him if she found out he tried to do anything.

Once they disappeared, Beast Boy said to the other three, "Wow, Robin would be so jealous right now."

Bumble Bee laughed and said, "You know it!"

After just a few moments, Kid Flash returned saying, "Whose next?"

He took Bumble Bee to the power plant next, and then came Beast Boy and finally Control Freak. The latter most took significantly longer, and the speedster appeared to be breathing heavily.

"I've done way too much running, I'm gonna need some food and a break. I'm gonna go get some, while you guys draw up a plan." Kid Flash said before running off at what looked like a slower speed than usual.

They all gathered around between two shipping containers, and Bumble Bee took out all papers that where given to them and laid them out in front of them. Chang had given them, not only a map to where to find it, but blue prints of the building, schedules of patrols, and where every important material was kept as well. The group began pouring over every detail of how to get into the building and secure enough Xinothium to power the remote.

"What if we went in through there?"

"There's gonna be a ton of cameras in this area."

"This tunnel looks like it could be helpful."

"We can use the ventilation duct to open this door."

"Are there sensors over here?"

"That locked door shouldn't be too hard to open, if we go with speed over stealth."

"The security patrol will pass by right there."

"We could try to get a set of keys, that might make it easier."

"Can we just ask them for it?"

In about fifteen minutes, they had a plan that would seem like it could work, and Kid Flash joined them again shortly.

"Okay here's what we have." Bumble started but was cut off by the speedster.

"I'll just follow your guy's lead. We gotta get going." Kid Flash told his teammates.

Starfire took lead saying, "Then we shall be doing the going now."

She leaned around the corner of the container, and looked at the massive brick building in front of them. It was ringed by a matching brick wall, but that would be their easiest obstacle. They quickly flew, were carried, or ran over it, and flattened themselves against the building. Starfire edged along it with her team right behind her until she came across a small utility shed than was built into side of the building. Beast Boy then walked in front of the alien and transformed into an ant before crawling under the edge of the door. Beast Boy opened the door from the other side, and they all quickly packed themselves into the small room. Next up, Bumble be shrunk down, and flew up to the small in the vent in the ceiling. She came out on the other side of the wall and looked around for other people in the area. Seeing none, she hit the wall three times. After a moment, Starfire's fist came through the wall. She then as quietly as she could, tore the opening wider. It was easy because she didn't have to get through anything more that wood and dry wall. In under a minute, there was a sizable hole that abled them all to climb through.

"I see were taking the fastest way, not the quietest way." Kid Flash said.

"Actually." Bumble Bee said. "No one comes down this hall way, and the shed door is the only entrance in the entire building that did not have an advanced locking system or any sensors, and I mean only one."

"Makes sense, considering it actually isn't a door that you use to enter the building." Kid Flash conceded.

From there, they moved to the lower levels, avoiding all heavily trafficked areas. It was slow going, but eventually, they made their way down to a heavily locked door, that led to the core of the building. Before they could enact there plan to open it, a guard turned the corner and almost walked into them. Before he could react, Kid Flash landed a solid three punches on his temple, and the guard went down.

"That was close." Kid Flash said, dusting his hands off as his teammates just looked at him. "What? He was gonna call in for back up or set off an alarm." The speedster also held up an I.D. card in his hand. "And we can use this to open the door and the other ones too."

They had to admit that it would make things easier, even though Kid Flash just knocked a guy out cold. The I.D. card was used to open the door, and the team moved further into the power station. Avoiding a few more guards here and there, until they made it to the last door that led to where the Xinothium was kept. They opened the door and all rushed in, quickly closing it behind them. In front of the team, was the reactor that ran the whole building, glowing a powerful red.

"How are we gonna get this stuff into the remote?" Beast Boy asked to no one in particular.

"There's more in smaller increments in this room over here." Control Freak filled him in.

"Oh, that makes more sense." Beast Boy replied.

The group of law-breakers moved over to the room, but when they tried to use the card to open it, the reader flashed red. They tried it again, but the door would not open.

"I guess Star rips the door off it's hinges then." Kid Flash said.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you." A raspy, electronic voice said from behind them.

The entire team turned around to see that they had another occupant in the room: Red X.

They were too astonished to give a quick reply, so the thief continued. "I give you credit for actually making it in here, but you did a terrible job doing it. You left the gaping hole in the wall and the guard laying where you knocked him out. Yanking the door out would be your final mistake, the entire building will go on lockdown, and you'll be stuck down here."

"You are unwise for alerting us to your presence here." Starfire said with clenched fists and eyes glowing green. "We outnumber you, Red X."

"What? Are you gonna take me down for breaking into here and stealing some Xinothium?" Red X replied confidently.

Seeing again that they had no response for him yet again, he continued on. "Would you then hand me off to the police so they can kill me? Because seeing that Control Freak is here too, I'd say that you four are against the new rules. So go ahead, turn me in." He said holding out his wrists, waiting to be hand cuffed.

Starfire lowered her fists, and her eyes reverted back to her normal color. "What is it that you want?"

Red X laughed. He knew that he had beat them without even needing to start a fight. "All I want is some more Xinothium to power the suit, and I don't want to fight you for it. Here's the deal, I open the door for you, and we both walk out of here happy."

The others looked at each other. It seemed like it could work. There really wasn't a reason not to just let the thief do his work and open the door.

"Okay, Red X, we agree to these terms." Starfire said.

"Then let me do my thing." Red X said as he approached the door. He pulled out a few tools from his belt and got straight to work. The door opened in under ten seconds. Red X stood up and gestured towards the door. "Ladies first."

Starfire went into the small room and came out holding an open briefcase with a tube of Xinothium in it. Red X went in and came out holding two. Starfire closed the briefcase and said to the team, "Let us leave now."

Kid Flash looked at the expert thief. "What about him? Is he coming with us?" He asked.

"I don't need your help leaving, but you all would be a nice distraction for me to sneak out. I think I might tag along." Red X said haughtily.

They all left together, finding nothing wrong with a little extra expertise in the theft department from Red X, even if he wasn't the most friendly company. On their way out, they all began to notice that there were absolutely no other people left in the building.

"That's weird. Where'd everybody go?" Beast Boy asked.

Red X looked around. "That doesn't make sense, unless there was…" He trailed off before suddenly turning to face the rest of the group. "We have to leave now!" He yelled as he took off at a full sprint. They followed suit and took off after the thief, not fully understanding why. Red X led them in the direction of the front door, with all sense of stealth thrown out the window.

"Why what's up?" Kid Flash said, easily keeping up with the criminal.

"They have a silent alarm." He said right as he reached the front door.

"Wait!" Kid Flash yelled as he put an arm on the shoulder of Red X, but he had already pushed it open.

In front of them were dozens of cop cars, with the police pointing guns at the two who just exited. The two groups stared at each other until the cops lowered their guns. Finally, one of the police men spoke up.

"Kid Flash? You already got him?" The police chief yelled out

Kid Flash looked down at his hands and saw that he had a hand on the thief's shoulder, and the other grabbing his arm. He realized that it kind of looked like he already had apprehended Red X and was now pushing him out the door, from the perspective of the police. He didn't feel like it would be good to correct that misperception, and he just ran with it.

"Uh, yes. That is correct." He said as he moved Red X into a more confining hold. "I have apprehended the the thief and have him right now. That is exactly what happened!" He said loudly, hoping that they would but it.

More of the Titans started to exit the building, and Kid Flash added, "Yes me and these Titans. JUST these TITANS, have appended Red X, but ONLY these TITANS." Kid Flash said, putting extra emphasis on the word Titans.

Beast Boy was confused as to why he was speaking weirdly, but Bumble Bee picked up on what he was trying to say and shoved Control Freak back inside the building, before the cops saw him.

"So there is no need to check inside the building, because we have already caught the one and only perpetrator in the building." Kid Flash kept saying but wincing at how terrible it sounded.

"Um, okay. We'll take Red X off you're hands then, and head out." The police chief responded.

"No!" Starfire yelled, but then quickly added as everyone began staring at her, "Um, we can take this criminal to the police station. We do not mind?" Starfire finished in a voice that sounded more like a question instead a statement.

"Uh, if you say so." The chief said.

Right as the police were getting back into their cars, and the Titans thought that had avoided being caught, a security guard burst through the door holding onto Control Freak.

"Control Freak is here as well!" the guard called out.

The police stopped and looked back at the heroes.

"Whaaat? How did he get here?" Kid Flash said very slowly.

The cops looked at the heroes, now suspicious of the situation. "Actually, we're gonna take Red X to the police station, and you heroes will be coming too." The police chief said.

The Titans looked at each other.

Kid Flash sighed and said "Well, we almost made it. I'll take out the cameras." before taking off at full speed.

Realizing what the speedster meant, the Titans jumped into action with the help of Red X. As Kid Flash destroyed every camera in the area, the Titans took on the cops, giving just enough effort to make them stay down, but not leaving serious injury. Bumble Bee jumped towards the guard holding Control Freak and landed a strong kick right into his jaw. Starfire flew towards the largest group of cops and put them all down as swiftly as she could. The police force was caught completely off guard, and didn't even have enough time to draw their weapons again. Red X was making quick work of the few off to the left, and Beast Boy, in the form of a cheetah, the few on the right. Kid Flash finished with the cameras in seconds, and dispatched the rest of the cops that were still on their feet. Every cop lay on the ground unconscious in under thirty seconds.

"Well that could have gone worse." Red X said as he picked up the briefcases full of Xinothium from where he dropped them.

"Could have gone worse? Dude, we just had to knock a bunch of cops out!" Beast Boy yelled back.

"You guys are the ones with the moral dilemma of punching cops, not me." Red X said back in a icy tone.

"He is kinda right, we do have the XInothium, and we aren't captured right now, so it could be worse." Bumble Bee said.

Starfire responded. "We do indeed. We must recharge the remote and continue the search to prove Control Freak's innocence."

Red X laughed at them. "Is that why you're doing all of this? To just prove his innocence? Let me ask, what's the next step after that?"

The Titans looked at each other. There really was no next step after that. Proving Control Freak's innocence was pretty much the end result.

"I've got news for you. You're breaking the law to do that, and you can't just walk away from it when you're done. You just spit in the mayor's face, breaking someone he's sentenced to die out of jail, and he's not just gonna let that slide." Red X finished.

"Well then, we must show the city that the mayor is not fit for leading this city." Starfire said in a matter-of-fact tone.

That made Red X laugh yet again. "Now that would be something I would like to see. How would you even plan to do that?"

Starfire thought about what he said. She really had no idea how to do something like that, but after a moment she asked, "How much would you like to see this happen, Red X?"

He didn't expect a question to be asked back, but responded, "Well, I hate the guy, so a lot."

"If you would like to see that happen, would you help us do so?" Starfire asked innocently.

"Wait. Are you asking me to join your little team here? You guys are so screwed!" Red X said not even giving it a second thought.

"But we may be the only one's that are capable do to so" Starfire countered, now growing more confident. "Tell me, what is the next step to YOUR plan, Red X? Will you try to run and hide until the day you are caught and killed?"

Red X was realizing that she was starting to make a good point. He didn't really have a next step either, and he was bound to eventually get captured, but signing on with them could ensure his death even faster.

"I don't do hero stuff. That's your job." Red X replied after a short silence.

"I wouldn't quite call us heroes. I mean look at what we just did." Kid Flash said as he pointed to the policemen scattered around them. "And we can't even turn to the other Titans, they'd try to arrest us. We could use your help."

Red X took a moment to think about it. "I'm no Titan."

Beast Boy was the one to respond. "Neither are we."

The expert thief went dead silent for a while. Eventually he turned away from the team and replied "Sorry, but I don't have a death wish. Find someone else." He took off and disappeared from sight.

"Agh, I thought we had him converted!" Kid Flash loudly yelled out. He turned back to his team, and continued, "Well there's no point in sticking around, these guys are gonna wake up any time so we better get out of here."

Kid Flash took them all back to Cass's apartment one by one, but when they left, they missed one thing. Kid Flash had succeeded in destroying all cameras on the building and the ones on the dashboard of the cop cars, but he had missed one last camera. The camera that was in the hands of a teenage boy who was there filming from before they had even exited the building. He now ran off holding his camera, thinking to himself, _I gotta show this to somebody!_

The heroes made it back to Cass's apartment, and were now all gathered in the living room.

"We have the Xinothium, so we can recharge the remote, but the Titans will be up and after us again at any moment. What's the plan?" Bumble Bee said to everyone.

"I think it would be wise to not go out again. We have risked so much today already." Starfire told everyone.

"I agree. Let's take the rest of the day off." Kid Flash said, who was dead tired from running across the world so much in one day.

"Okay, that means we're done for the day." Bumble Bee finalized. "Anything else."

Beast Boy raised his hand.

"Uh, Beast Boy?" She said, not really knowing what else to do.

The shape shifter began right away. "Okay so I've been thinking. I told Red X that we really weren't Titans anymore, so that got me thinkin', what do we call ourselves then? So this entire time I've been thinkin' of team names and I have some ideas. Okay, what do you guys think of…

[End Chapter]

Hold up! Not a cliffhanger! I actually don't even have a team name picked out, so I want you guys to give me one! Yes, leave a review and tell me what you think a good team name would be! It doesn't matter if it's ridiculous or weird, because any team name I like, I'll have it mentioned in a brainstorm session of team names!

IF YOU HAVE A TEAM NAME IDEA I WANT TO KNOW!

Any way, what did you think about the chapter? Did you like Red X? Do you think that the rogue Titans are beginning to cross too many lines? Why are Jericho and Cyborg now riding together in a car? All these questions in one chapter!

Also, thank you to my reviewers, why don't we have another chat.

JP-Ryder, thanks, I think I want to add another Kid Flash moment again sometime, and I also might make a story like that. Wow, you give me a lot of good ideas!

TheUltimateStar, I'm so happy that you "freaking loved" the last chapter! It was so much fun to do! You're always very encouraging with your reviews.

Jovan2013, haha yah, I think that would be a good plan for BB to use!

And you guest reviewer, sure an idea of yours might interfere with my story or... It could be a really awesome idea that I'd love to add my story, and I'm betting on the second. Don't be afraid to tell me an idea, it could be amazing!

Anyways, that's all I got.

Here is Chapter eleven, was it Above Average in your book?


	12. Chapter 12

"Okay, what do you guys think of…" Beast Boy paused for dramatic affect.

"Oh just say it." Bumble Bee said, getting a little impatient.

"The Fellowship of the Remote!" Beast Boy said as he raised his eyebrows repeatedly. "Yah? Sounds pretty good, right?"

Control Freak was sold the second he heard 'Fellowship'. "I don't think there really needs to be a debate. I think we've already found the perfect name."

"Okay, hold on. I'm not gonna have a team that I'm on, be a reference to Lord of the Rings. That is not happening." Bumble said indignantly with her hands on her hips.

"Fine! I've got others!" Beast Boy said, trying to cover up his hurt that the team name was shot down. "So since creativity is out the window, how about the New Titans?"

Kid Flash shook his head. "It's clean and simple, but it might just be a little too boring. How does Shadow Force sound? It will make us sound mysterious, and the ladies will be asking-" The speedster took on a very high pitched, more feminine voice. "'Who are these mystical heroes? Why is the one in yellow so attractive?'"

"Ha! In your dreams, Kid." Bumble Bee said to the speedster. "Nobody's gonna be swoonin' over you. I do like the name though."

"Yup, came straight from this amazing machine." Kid Flash said as he pointed to his head.

"We can still brainstorm some more ideas about this. What about the Sneakers? I mean we're really sneaky an' all so I think it works." Beast Boy said as he looked around to see the others reactions.

"We've gotten caught every single time that we've tried to be sneaky, BB." Bumble Bee reminded the shape shifter.

"Oh, right." Beast Boy said as remembered trying to steal the remote out of Titan's Tower and the Xinothium incident that just happened.

"Outlaws?" Control Freak threw out. "Maybe go off them and be the Teen Tyrants?"

"Those sound cool, but I don't know if they send the right message. We still want to be the good guys." Kid Flash said to Control Freak.

"What about Young Justice? It's got a nice ring to it, like it could really work for a team of superheroes." Bumble Bee volunteered. "Actually, it works too well to be the name of a super hero team. Like it's already been done or something." She added on, as the rest of the team nodded in agreement.

"We can be called the Snargaths!" Starfire called out to her teammates.

Kid Flash answered immediately. "Perfect!"

"But what does that even mean?" Control Freak asked.

Kid Flash ran up next to Control Freak and said, "See, that's the thing. Nobody knows; not even us."

Starfire just went on to explain the name anyway. "Snargaths are mystical beings that are said to be the guardians the the temple of Snargahul'eh."

"That sounds like a cool story, but what if we just went with Guardians? That sounds pretty good, and we can still be mysterious with the secret origin of the name." Bumble Bee said bringing multiple things together.

"That actually sounds pretty good to me." Kid Flash agreed.

Beast Boy snapped his fingers. "I got it! Team Beast Boy-Starfire-Bumble Bee-Kid Flash-Control Freak-Cass. Well, if you want, Cass."

"Okay are you even trying, Beast Boy?" Bumble Bee responded.

Cass laughed at the team name. "I don't think I've done enough to be on the team to be in the name, but I do think I have an idea."

"Alright, lay it on us!" Bumble Bee encouraged her friend.

"Well, they're the Titans, right? In Greek mythology, The Titans ruled the earth until Kronos's son, Zeus, over threw them all, and became gods. Calling yourselves 'Gods' doesn't feel right, but they came down and settled on Mount Olympus. What about the team name, The Olympians?"

"Okay how about-wait, that sounds like a really good idea! So the Olympians beat the Titans? That's a cool idea, dude!" Beast Boy consented.

"Yah, that is a great idea! It's a real slap in the face for them for trying to back the crazy mayor guy." Kid Flash agreed.

"I agree with both of you guys. That's a solid name Cass." Bumble Bee said.

Starfire flew up a little into the air and yelled out, "It is a wonderful name! I believe we have found the name to our new team!"

Everyone started clapping and congratulating Cass for coming up with the idea. Cass smiled at everyone, and she went to thank them, but her phone went off, so she took it out of her pocket.

She began to speak as she looked down at her phone. "Thanks you guys I think-Oh shit!" Cass suddenly yelled over the excited team in a panicked voice.

She was looking at her phone with a very scared expression on her face, when the rest of the team turned to face her.

"What is it that is wrong?" Starfire asked in a concerned tone.

Cass looked up from her phone and said, "Turn on the news right now."

Back in Titan's Tower, Raven just began to wake up from her dose of knock out gas. She opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling of the living room as she felt the leather beneath her.

 _Am I on the couch? What just happened?_ She thought to herself.

She tried to remember back to what had happened before she ended up being on the couch.

 _Okay, Cyborg left the team this morning; I can remember that. Then what happened? We needed to find a replacement, right? Yes, and we contacted the person, and they came over to the tower. Who came over to the tower? He was a speedster, right? Mas y Menos have been with us for a while now though. Oh, wait it was Kid Flash. He came and then left quickly only to return to…_

Raven bolted up from her resting position on the couch.

"Kid Flash knocked me out!" Raven pretty much yelled out.

She never really was one to talk to herself aloud, but this was a special case. "Azar, when I see that idiot again, I am going to make him relive every nightmare he's ever had, one by one and then… and then I…" She now looked about the room and saw she had an audience with her.

"Why are you guys duct taped all over the room?" She finished.

Speedy was the first to respond. "Look at who's finally awake. How'd you sleep?"

Raven just stared back at him. Everyone was duct taped somewhere in the room, and she had no idea why. This wasn't how she expected this day to go.

Robin just decided to start to fill the empath in. "Seeing that you remember Kid Flash knocked you out, I'll add that he betrayed us to go help out the other Titans. Right when he knocked you out, he duct taped us all down. We've been trying to escape since the moment he left, but he has successfully trapped us all. Our only means of getting out was just having to wait until you woke up, so if you could please get us out of these restraints. We've been stuck in these positions for multiple hours."

Raven just nodded slowly, and got up to free her teammates. She raised her hand to cut their bonds, but the giant screen in the living room suddenly came to life, drawing her attention.

It was the mayor.

Not really looking at his audience, he began straight away. "I believe that you have all seen what is on every television set in Jump City? You don't know how many strings I needed to pull to get access to show up on your tower's monitor. So I need you… you…" The mayor finally looked at exactly who he was talking to.

"And you're all taped to furniture and the wall. Now I know why they were able to do what they did." He finished with a very disappointed look on his face.

Robin couldn't think this could have gone any worse. Then Speedy finally lost his balance and fell face first into the floor, causing the mayor to shake his head.

"I hope there's an explanation for all this." The mayor said as he crossed his arms.

Robin couldn't even throw a hand against his face in shame, since it was now attached to his side. "Yes sir, the speedster, Kid Flash, apprehended us all using duct tape and we now believe that he has joined the other Titans and-"

"Oh there is no question on whether he joined the other ones. It's plain as day in the video." The mayor said, cutting off the leader of the Titans.

"I apologize, but what video are you talking about?" Robin asked, hearing the mayor bring up the fact that something really bad had apparently happened, but none of the Titans had any idea of what was going on.

In response, a smaller portion at the bottom corner of the screen changed to the biggest news channel in Jump City. It was a breaking news special that had on the scene coverage of what happened just a little while ago. The camera work was shaky, but it was very obvious to see what was going on. Starfire, Beast Boy, Bumble Bee, and Kid Flash were all on the news, taking down a large group of police officers. None of the Titans could believe their eyes. The group watched silently, but things got even worse. They also saw a dark figure working with the team to fight all the cops, but it wasn't clear who it was until all the officers were down. Gasps were heard throughout the room when the dust settled and they could see their old friends were now talking to Red X. The mayor changed the channel on the little screen moving to another news channel and then another and another, and they all were covering the same story.

"Now I will be speaking on this subject, to address the city and curb panic. By the time I do that you will have a solid plan on how to take this on. Is that clear?" The mayor asked in a voice that bordered anger.

Robin nodded back. "Yes sir."

The mayor ended the call and ran a hand through his hair. He sat at his desk in his office looking at his computer screen. He took a moment to collect himself, and then opened up a second call. After a moment, two men in dark clothes answered.

"What did he tell you?" The mayor asked the men.

The two men stepped off to the side, to reveal another man slumped over in a chair.

"He has confessed that he gave the perpetrators direction to the power plant with blueprints and various pieces of information of the building and its employees." The man on the right said in a completely rigid voice.

"And the courts' verdict?" The mayor asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Guilty." The man on the left answered.

"Good. Carry out the sentence." The mayor said back with a small smile.

The two men nodded and moved back to the third man in a chair. The third began to panic.

"Wait, I have told you what you have wanted! Please! Please do not kill me!" He cried out in a terrified voice.

"Jump City has condemned that you, Professor Chang, to death. May God have mercy on your soul." The man on the right said as he closed in on the man slumped over in the chair.

The mayor ended the call before they had reached him. He did not like watching how they carried out sentences, he only wanted the assurance that it was actually carried out.

Back in the tower, Raven had freed everyone from their duct tape imprisonment. Robin was pacing the room thinking over a plan that could bring this all to an end quickly. Everyone stood around him, not wanting to interrupt his thoughts. The monitor in the room had no such plan and once again, flashed back on to reveal another man calling Titans' Tower. Robin looked up and saw someone much worse than an angry mayor.

"Batman." Robin said, devoid of any emotion.

"Robin." The Dark Knight responded with somehow less emotion. "There seems to be a problem in Jump City."

"Yes, but we're handling it right now. You don't need to get involved." Robin said back, withholding the anger he was feeling. "We don't need your help."

"I would say differently. The way you're standing with your feet at that width shows that you're unsteady on your feet. You're holding one arm slightly higher than the other, which means you have been straining it for a long period of time. This means you've been trapped in a sitting position for hours, and were unsuccessful in escaping. Aqaulad shows similar characteristics, so he was also trapped in a sitting position. Speedy is standing with his feet too far together and arms brought in too close, and seeing that he has to rotate his ankles every once in a while, he was trapped standing straight up. Mas y Menos have worse posture, finding it awkward to stand and arms at a more outward position, meaning they hand to be attached to a wall, not standing or sitting. Raven is showing obvious symptoms from being under my knock out gas. Seeing that the fabric on all of your uniforms except Raven's is slightly frayed, you were all trapped by an adhesive, most probably duct tape, so no you are not handling it." Batman said, never pausing for breath, but not needing to breathe heavily after finishing.

No one knew how to respond. It was unnatural for a human, especially without super powers, to be able to see exactly what happened, by posture, and the state of their uniforms.

Under his breath, Speedy said, "How does he even do that?"

Robin ignored Batman's break down of the situation. "We were trapped, but we aren't now, so if you can excuse us, we have to get the situation under control."

"I'm going to send in a Justice League member to make sure." Batman said, as soon as Robin finished.

That made Robin's eyes narrow and his fists tighten. "No you will not be sending in a Justice League member. This is a problem between Titans, t's going to stay just between Titans, and the problem will be solved between Titans. I will not allow any other heroes into Jump City because it is under our protection."

Batman just looked at Robin, and his past sidekick looked back. Tension rose as the two just looked at each other. "You get one week, then I send in a hero." He said after a long pause.

"I won't need a week." Robin said back fiercely.

Batman nodded. "Show me then." He ended the call, and the screen went dark.

Robin gave a sound that sounded eerily similar to a growl and kicked in the side of the sofa next to him, causing a large portion of it to collapse backwards. He instantly stood straight again, with his back facing his team. The Titan leader just stood in silence, as he breathed heavily from his short outburst. None of his teammates wanted to approach him either, seeing how he had just reacted. Robin had truly hit rock bottom. Everything was going against him right now, and he didn't really see a way for thing to improve. Robin was about to turn around to face his team to tell them that, when the giant monitor turned on yet again. This time, it did not instantly cut straight to a face, but was the normal incoming call alert.

"At least these people are courteous enough to not break into our system to talk to us." Aqualad said, trying to find at least one silver lining in an otherwise awful day.

Robin accepted it, and the three teen heroes currently in the Titan's East Tower appeared. On the screen were Argent, Hotspot, and Wildabeast.

Argent started right away. "We saw what just happened in Jump. Do you need more back up? Any of us would get down there in an instant if you needed us."

Robin was speechless. It's exactly what he needed. Another incoming call alert popped up before he could respond. He opened it, and Red Star appeared on screen.

"My friends, I see you are having trouble in your city. I will leave Russia to come assist you if you are in need of help." He informed the team.

Another call alert appeared and was opened. Pantha appeared on the screen as well.

"Hello Titans. Pantha is calling in to say that if you need help, Pantha will come to your aid and fight and win!" She said enthusiastically.

Two more alerts came in, and Bushido and Herald were added to the screen of Titans, both giving their services if they were needed.

Robin looked at the screen filled with those willing to help and thought that maybe things weren't as bad as they seemed.

Across town, Cyborg collapsed onto a luxurious sofa.

"Wow, look at all this stuff! I didn't know that you were were rolling in it, Jericho. This couch alone probably costs as much as our tower! I mean, I don't even recognize the animal print." Cyborg excitedly said to his mute friend.

Jericho nodded back and pulled out his notepad and pen. After a moment of writing, he showed it to his fellow Titan.

"Huh, your dad's rich? I never knew that." Cyborg said as he scratched his chin. "In fact I don't really know anything about you."

Jericho shrugged back and wrote down. "We don't get to see each other very often."

"Yah, well we're here right now so let me know a little about yourself." Cyborg said with a smile.

Jericho became a little uneasy. He had a lot to say, but he didn't really like talking about his past. In fact, he almost hated talking about it, so he wrote down, "Another time, let's just watch some t.v. for now."

Cyborg was never one to turn down some good t.v. watching. "Alright, I could use a little t.v.!"

They both regretted that decision the moment the t.v. turned on. Before them, flashed the news that was covering the story of the century. The title: Titans Become Tyrants? Cyborg and Jericho both just sat still and watched the footage of people who were once their teammates bring down over a dozen cops easily. They weren't listening to what the newscasters had to say; they just looked at the footage on loop with their mouths wide open.

"Why would they do this?" Cyborg asked in a very quiet voice.

Jericho heard his friend's words and quickly wrote, "There has to be a reason." Before showing it to his friend.

Cyborg shook his head and said, "Well, I can guess on what the underlining reason is. I never really told you why I was walking out on the streets." He paused as the two just looked at each other. After a deep sigh, Cyborg began again. "Ya' see well, Control Freak got busted for murder, you probably saw that though, and Starfire thought that he was innocent. The people they claimed had broke Control Freak outta jail, it was actually Starfire. The mayor didn't want to cause any panic by announcing that. After that happened, Beast Boy left the team after that to join her. When we finally captured them, Bumble Bee set 'em free again and joined 'em."

Cyborg had to take a moment again before saying what he had too next.

"It's been real hard on me to actually fight them, so I-I resigned from the team."

Jericho only nodded back slowly, keeping his emotions masked. Cyborg continued.

"That's probably how those guys got to fighting cops, and now I guess, Kid Flash joined 'em too, and got a little help from Red X. There had to be something else that forced them to fight the police, but that's where it all started."

Jericho had shown almost no reaction to Cyborg's words as he spoke. He had only nodded every once in a while to show that he was listening. He kept all judgement to himself, not knowing exactly what the team had gone through. He picked up his pad and wrote, "I'm sorry."

Cyborg nodded back, "I think we're all sorry."

He sat back against the couch and looked back at the t.v. The want to watch something had disappeared and Cyborg just wanted to do what he usually did when his mind was troubled: work on his baby. He was missing a lot of things since he left. Even before he left, things weren't the same as they once were. As he tried to avoid thinking about all the things that troubled him, he had an idea.

"Say, would you want me to check out how your car is running? Maybe fiddle around with it a little too to get her running perfectly."

Jericho knew that Cyborg was into cars, so he could guess that it would probably be a coping mechanism for him. He nodded with a warm smile on his face, and the two got up and went to the garage.

Back in Cass's apartment, the newly dubbed Olympians were beginning to panic.

"How'd they get us on camera? I took care of every camera on and around the building, and went a little overkill to get the ones in the surrounding area!" Kid Flash said in disbelief.

"Well it looks like you missed one, dude! Oh we are so done." Beast Boy followed up.

Bumble Bee looked closer at the t.v. and commented, "It's shaky, which means that somebody was actually filming us. It wasn't just a street camera, and it wasn't the police either."

Control Freak spoke next, saying, "Doesn't matter anyway. They would have known either way, even if we took out the cameras. I mean we did knock out cops who got a clear view of us."

"I know that, but it would have just been the cops word and no evidence. A story like that might not even make it on the news. It would probably have been covered by a gossip magazine instead, and a lot of people would dismiss it. Now with with video of us fighting them, there's a huge story that can't be denied." Kid Flash countered.

"It matters not, my friends. We have been hiding from the city already just to be careful, so this does not change the situation. It also might be wise to leave the city for a time, as well." Starfire said, keeping the situation from getting out of hand.

"Star's right. I think we should skip town for a while and let things cool down here. They might be pouring over street cams, trying to get a clue to where we are." Bumble Bee said, before turning to speak to Cass directly. "You've done a lot for us, and I don't want you to get in trouble for what we've done."

Cass shook off the comment. "I knew what I was signing up for when I let you guys stay here. You don't need to try to protect me."

"I know you're a very strong person, but I think it would be best for all of us to leave for a while." Bumble Bee replied.

"She's right, Cass. We should clear out for a while, even though you are clearly capable to handle the situation." Kid Flash added.

"So I guess we're leavin' then?" Beast Boy asked the rest of the team.

"Yes, it appears we are." Starfire said as she put a hand on her friends shoulder.

"Well if we need to go undercover, we're gonna need to lose the colorful tights. I'll be right back." Kid Flash said before taking off.

A gust of wind filled the room for a moment, but it quickly died down. Everyone looked at each other when the speedster left. None of them knew what he could possibly be up to. He soon returned with arms full of clothing.

"Okay, I've got choices for each of you. They're in all your sizes, so don't worry about that. I just didn't know what style you guys would like." Kid Flash said as he started laying out the clothes for everyone to see.

"From where did you acquire these clothes, and how did you do so?" Starfire asked as she inspected the clothes. "These were hopefully not stolen, yes?"

"I wouldn't say stolen. It's more like borrowed." Kid Flash said as he finished laying the rest of the clothes out.

"You can't do that, Kid! You stole these!" Bumble Bee yelled at the speedster.

"Calm down, Honey bee. We'll give them back once we're done with them. They'll be honored that they were used, and they'll open them up as their own clothing line. They can even use the new name too: Olympian Clothing, it's got a good ring to it." Kid Flash reassured his teammates.

"You're lucky I can't think of another way to get some clothes, or you'd have get a smacking for doing something like this." Bumble Bee said as she picked up the best looking clothes in her size. The thought of how Kid Flash knew what sizes to buy also crossed her mind as she did so. "And why do you know what size clothes we wear?"

Kid Flash didn't even miss a beat. "Oh I just took a measurement of all of you before I left. Thanks for letting me use the measuring tape by the way." He said as he tossed it to Cass who deftly caught it.

"Ya' little creep! I didn't give you permission to do that!" Bumble Bee yelled again at the speedster.

"Relax, I didn't cop a feel while I did it! I've got a girl back in Europe that lets me do that with out me having to use super speed." Kid Flash said with a grin.

Starfire just decided to change the subject. "Even if your methods are questionable, you have chosen well with these clothes. I think they all look very nice." She said with a smile.

"Thank you. At least someone is grateful for my efforts." Kid Flash replied to Starfire while still looking at Bumble Bee. He turned to look at Starfire and pulled out a pair of sunglasses as well. " And these will cover those gorgeous green eyes of yours as well."

Beast Boy wasn't really paying attention to the rest of the group, and had already donned his favorite set of clothes. "Check it out! I'm lookin' so fly right now!" He said as he made multiple model like poses.

"Oh, work it girl!" Kid Flash called out between whistles.

Beast Boy turned and strutted towards him, and ended with one final pose. The two boys' eyes were locked, and after a moment of silence, they both broke out into laughter. The others in the room joined in and laughed or just smiled at the two goofing around.

Kid Flash composed himself again and turned to the rest. "See, there's no need to freak out about having to leave. Everything's gonna be alright. Now, the rest of you cover up those suits, so I can return the rest we didn't need, and we can all leave."

The others had chosen their clothes and had put them all on. Kid Flash returned the rest, and they all began their good byes to Cass.

"You really are too kind to let us stay here for as long as we did." Bumble Bee said as she gave her friend a giant hug.

"I couldn't just leave you guys out in the city. It was actually surprisingly nice to have you guys her. Life was pretty boring before you showed up." Cass replied as the two released each other.

"You know, you're one pretty awesome dude, or dudette, I mean, uh." Beast Boy said, trying to complement his host.

She just laughed, because she knew the shape shifter meant well. "You're a pretty awesome dude yourself."

Beast Boy gave a huge smile in response.

Starfire flew in giving a signature, back-breaking hug, but Cass handled it well. "You are a glorious friend for taking us in, and I will never forget the kindness you have showed us!"

"Thanks, it's not even a chore to have you around Starfire." She said in a slightly higher pitch due to the fact that she was being squeezed.

After being set back down, the final two people gave their thanks.

"Thanks for helping us Cass, I-" Control Freak started, but was cut off by Kid Flash.

"Yah I know that we just met, but you're a one of a kind girl." He said with a wink.

Cass laughed and shook her head as the rest of the group shifted towards the door. They all waved as Cass closed the door behind them. They walked out onto the street, and were now much less conspicuous than when in their usual attire. Beast Boy wore a hoodie and pants with the hood pulled up. He also had a snapback on, so if he kept his head tilted down and his hands in his pockets, very little green was visible to the average passerby. With her sunglasses on, Starfire looked like a normal human being as well. The other three looked like normal people already, if Bumble Bee shrunk her wings down, which she had already done. As the group moved down the street, they drew almost zero attention.

"This seems to be working well. Who would have known that we could disappear, just with the covering up of our costumes?" Starfire said cheerfully.

They had now been walking across town for some time, and there had been absolutely no incidents of being recognized.

"Yah, too bad we still have absolutely no idea where we're goin'." Bumble Bee added.

"We'll figure somethin' out!" Beast Boy said, trying to keep positive.

They were now coming up on a bus station, and Kid Flash looked around, spotting an ornate fountain that was next to it as well.

"I've got a plan you guys. Want to really put our disguises to the test?" He said to the rest of the group.

Without waiting for a reply, Kid Flash walked into a nearby alley and took off his clothes at super speed. He took off towards the fountain, and jumped right into it. He bent down and took out every quarter that was at the bottom, and then raced back towards his teammates. He ducked back into the alleyway, and gave himself a good shake before putting his clothes back on. With maybe just a second in time passing, he walked back out of the alley and to his friends.

"What did you just do?" Beast Boy asked.

In response, Kid Flash took his hand out of his pocket and opened it, showing his friends the handful of coins he now had.

"Took them out of the fountain. Now we can use the bus to get out of town. But the real question is do you guys still think we won't get recognized if we do?" Kid Flash said to the everyone.

"It beats walkin' out of town. I'm game for it." Bumble Bee said.

"As long as Beast Boy sits window seat, I think it can work." Control Freak added.

"Let's do this, Olympians!" Beast Boy yelled out, testing out the new team name. Everyone turned to shoot him a glare, for drawing attention to them. "What? Nobody knows the name yet."

"That is true." Starfire agreed. "Let us enter the bus then."

The group shuffled over to the station and got on the next bus. They paid with the coins from the fountain and all sat together in seats toward the back. Bumble Bee sat next to Kid Flash, Beast Boy sat with Starfire, and Control Freak sat alone behind them all. So far no one had given them a second glance and all seemed to be going well. They rode in silence; the bus stopped, and people got off the bus, and some came on. The cycle continued until a little girl and her mother sat directly across from Beast Boy and Starfire. The shape shifter accidentally made eye contact with the girl, and she looked at him with a puzzled expression.

She tapped her mother's arm, still looking at the teen superhero and asked loudly, "Mommy, why is that person green?"

The mother looked at Beast Boy, but he ducked his face away from her. Starfire saw what was happening and leaned in to block her view of her friend.

"He is sick that is all." She said innocently.

The mother nodded and turned back to her child. "He's just sick, and don't stare at himm; it's impolite."

The girl nodded and looked back in front of her. The Olympians all began to breathe again, seeing that they had not been discovered.

"Crisis averted." Kid Flash said in a hushed voice.

Right when Kid Flash finished speaking, the bus slammed on the breaks, and everyone slammed forward in their seats. Everyone was confused as to why the sudden stop had happened, but they looked up to see a gas tanker speed through right in front of them, missing the bus by inches. The out of control tanker careened into the side of a building, causing a loud crashing sound. The collision had sparked a fire, and it now surrounded the tanker full of gasoline.

"Or not." Kid Flash added.

[End Chapter]

That's another chapter down. How'd you like it? Did you guys agree with my choice of team name? Am I a jerk for ending on that note? Yah, probably…

On that note, Thank you for all reviewing and giving me ideas.

Thank you, Jovan2013, Apologetic (You had the most creative), Mr. Guest, AnonymousCharlie, TheUltimateStar, and JP-Ryder! I hope you liked the way I incorporated your ideas into the story! If you think I bashed your idea in the story, I promise that was not my intention, but that's just how I thought it could be brought up.

And big shout out to Dysfunctional-Nom-De-Plume for giving the team name "Olympians!" It was my favorite out of the group. The idea of using Young Justice was almost my number one choice as was Guardians.

Also, thanks for the help with my Spanish, AnonymousCharlie, I only have two classes worth of knowledge.

To my guest reviewers, I was on the same page with Robin needing more people on his team. Also the idea of having Red X work for Slade isn't a terrible idea, but with the direction I'm taking, I don't think it would work. And the last guest review, yes I will give you more, since you said please.

Have I given you a chapter that is Above Average in your book?


	13. Chapter 13

The Olympians pressed their faces against the glass looking at the crash that just happened.

Kid Flash was still watching the fire burn when he said to the rest of his teammates, "So we got two choices: One, ignore all of this to keep our cover, or two, save some people only to have them turn on us once they see who saved them."

Starfire opened her window and flew out without even pausing to think.

"Well there's the answer. Looks like we're goin' with option two. Let's go save some folks." Kid Flash said before taking off at full speed.

Bumble Bee and Beast Boy joined the other two and flew out the window to help right after the first two left. Control Freak didn't know quite what to do, so he stayed in his seat for the moment. Kid Flash and Starfire were zooming in and out of the building, pulling everyone they could find out so one would be trapped with the burning tanker in the side of it. Beast Boy and Bumble Bee set out to find a way to keep the fire from reaching the taker full of gas, and it grew closer every second. They both flew into the air to get a better view of the situation and noticed a large water tower at the top of the building. After exchanging a knowing look, they both dove towards the water container. Bumble Bee shot off the screws that secured the top to the body while Beast Boy transformed into an African elephant, and threw the lid off the the top of the tower. He stuck his trunk inside, and filled it as much as he possibly could. He turned to the side, and emptied the contents over the edge of the building, onto the growing fire beneath him. Bumble Bee saw that she was no longer needed, and flew off to help make sure the rest of the innocent civilians were safe. With now three heroes working on crowd control, they had now cleared the entire area of civilians, leaving the fire to be the sole problem, but it was a growing problem. Despite Beast Boy constantly raining down water, it only seemed to be getting worse. The shape shifter knew that the integrity of the tanker could fail at any moment, and the whole block would go up in flames. He made the split second decision that a change in plan was in need, and backed away from the water tower. He then came running full speed and planted his front feet on the side of the tower, causing it to crumple, and fall towards the edge. It crashed down against the roof, and the rest of the water flowed off the edge, and flooded the gas tanker below, dousing the rest of the fire below him. Seeing that his work was done, he transformed back into a creature of flight and flew down to join the rest on the ground.

Now, no one was left trapped in the building, and the threat of the tanker exploding was gone. The surrounding crowd looked at the team of heroes that had just saved them all, and gasped once they recognized that they were the same heroes that had just been all over the news for taking down a group of cops. Some began to pull their phones out to take pictures of or record the heroes, but none wanted to get too close to them.

"So much for a low profile." Kid Flash said, as the crowd of on lookers drew around them.

"Yah we should probably get out of here." Bumble Bee added.

The group of heroes began to leave the scene, but noise coming from the cabin of the tanker drew their attention. The door opened and a man tumble out of the front seat, completely forgotten in the rush to get the civilians to safety. At the same time, a loud cracking sound from the roof of the building was heard, as the supports of the water tower began to pull out from the roof itself. With a final thunderous snap, the entire tower came loose, and came falling down in the exact direction of the tanker driver. Starfire was the first to react, and flew towards the fallen man, but there wasn't enough time to move him out of the way. The Tamaranean knew this, and instead stood above the man as the tower came crashing down on top of them both. After the dust settled, neither could be seen from under the wreckage of the water tower.

"Oh no, Star." Beast Boy said as he saw the twisted pieces of metal that rested were Starfire stood seconds before. "Please be okay."

After a moment of dead silence, the fallen tower moved an inch off the ground, then a few more, and then was lifted feet off the ground. Beneath it stood Starfire supporting the entire frame with her arms stretched above her, a man huddled on the ground next to her. The Tamaranean threw the tower off to the side and turned to help the man next to her back onto his feet. He was still rattled from the car accident and the tower collapse, but he seemed unharmed other than that.

The crowd was dumbfounded.

The rest of the heroes sprinted towards their friend and teammate, and Beast Boy even dove in for the hug.

"Oh my God, you're okay, Star!" Beast Boy said, completely ecstatic that his friend was unharmed.

"Have you forgotten that my kind is most resilient?" She asked with a smile.

"No, Star, the kid has a point. It looked pretty bad from our view!" Bumble Bee said back. "That collapse looked like it would even hurt Superman."

By then, the crowd had broken out into applause, praising the heroes that they were terrified of less than an hour ago.

"I think we did the right thing guys." Kid Flash said as he smiled and waved at the crowd.

That same crowd transformed from adoring fans, to reporters, in seconds as questions became pouring out of their mouths. There were too many being asked at one time, making it impossible for everyone but one to decipher their questions.

Beast Boy listened and heard one person in particular who asked, "Are you Titans the good guys or bad guys?"

He loudly responded, "Titans? Nope, we're called the Olympians, and you can call us the good guys, because the only thing we've done 'wrong,' is stand up to a mayor that has made some bad calls!"

The crowd was yelling more questions that no one could possibly make out, but then smoke quickly began to fill the area, causing the interviewers to cough. This Olympians became confused, especially since the fire was already put out. Starfire realized that the smoke came on to quickly to be natural, and thought that it had to be trouble. Already, it was impossible to see past a few feet in front of her. She worried that there was something happening, and called out to her team.

"Beast Boy are you well?" She called out.

Beast Boy's voice called out and said, "Yah I'm fine, but Kid Flash was next to me, and now he's not!"

Bumble Bee added, "Yah he said something from behind me right as the smoke came on, but I don't hear him anymore!"

Starfire began to think that her previous prediction might be true, and there was trouble. "We must work together to be able to find him. In what direction are you?"

Bumble Bee responded, "Over here, follow my voice!", but nothing came from Beast Boy.

"Hey Beast Boy, did you here that?" Bumble Bee called out.

Starfire yelled out, "Beast Boy! Are you still currently with us?"

There was no response from the shapeshifter, so she added, "I believe we are the only remaining, friend Bumble Bee!"

There was no response from her now. "Bumble Bee?" she tried again.

There was absolutely no response from any of her teammates now as Starfire tried to find them in the thick smoke. She saw that she was now alone and took a fighter's stance, now completely panicked as to what happened. She didn't know what was happening, but her teammates had quickly disappeared. Suddenly, a figure quickly grabbed her and began pulling her away. She turned to fight back, when she saw the rough outline of the person who grabbed her.

It looked exactly like Robin.

She was confused as to how he had found them and come so quickly. As he led her through the smoke, she was thinking of what she could say to him to explain what they were doing. She wanted for them to be one team again so badly, and she hoped he thought the same. He eventually ran down an alley way and to a group of people. Starfire was surprised to see that it was the Olympians, with Control Freak as well.

Starfire pulled her arm from his grip, and said to him, "Robin, I know what you are thinking, but I assure-" but stopped mid sentence when he turned around to face her. "You are not Robin. You look like him, but you are not him."

Before her stood a teenager who was about Robin's height, maybe slightly younger, but not by much, had a similar build, and had a similar hairstyle. He also wasn't wearing a harlequin mask though, which was a huge difference.

"Yeah, well sorry that I'm not." The teenager said in a voice that was even similar to Robin's. "I guess you could say that we're almost brothers."

"Wait, Robin had a brother?" Beast Boy asked in disbelief.

"I said almost, but that's not the point." The unknown teen said to the rest of the group. "The point is that: what the Hell are you guys trying to do?!" he said raising his voice a considerable amount at the end of the sentence.

"I know you guys are heroes, and it's in your blood, but that was a dumb move. If I hadn't come in and saved all your asses, then you would be going round two with the JCPD. They were less than two blocks away from the area when I threw those smoke bombs." The mysterious teen ended with.

"You threw those smoke bombs?" Beast Boy asked and then added, "How do you know we would hafta' fight the cops again? The crowd loved us."

The teen laughed and said, "I did, and you're right, the crowd loved you, but the cops sure don't. You knocked out how many the last time you saw them?"

"We had no choice but to render the police unconscious the last time we faced them, but this time we were doing the of saving innocent lives." She said.

"I hate to break it to you sweet heart, but just a fire out in the open like that isn't gonna cause one of those things to explode. You didn't really save anyone's life. I admit, you probably improved your image and got the new team name out there, but that's about all you accomplished." The teen scoffed.

"Who even are you, kid?" Kid Flash said, voicing the idea that was going through everyone's head.

He shook his head. "Are you all that dense to not even realize yet?" as he crossed his arms.

"He's Red X." Control Freak said, who had been quiet up until this point.

The others looked at their teammate in disbelief.

"I saw one of the canisters go off when he threw them. It had a red 'x' on the side of it." Control Freak followed up with.

"Bingo there chubby guy, and since I left those canisters back there, I'm pretty much irrevocably tied to you guys now." Red X said to the group.

They only stared back at the thief with perplexed looks.

"What? You think I always wear my suit, every time I step outside? Only you do-gooders are the ones who do that." Red X said as he rolled his eyes.

Kid Flash was the first to speak after learning the identity of the man who moved them away from the cops. "So now that everybody thinks that you're part of the team, you actually want to be a part of it?" He asked.

Red X looked down at the ground and shook his head, "Just because I helped you guys right now doesn't mean I want on the team."

"Then why did you help us, Red X?" Starfire asked.

"It's because… Well I was in the area, and… Maybe cuz I was bored. Why do you care?" Red X spoke in broken sentences, his air of superiority breaking for the first time.

"Was it because you believe that we can actually make a difference?" Starfire pressed on.

"Look, just cuz I helped out once, doesn't mean I want to be along for the whole ride." Red X said defensivly.

"You do not have to 'be along for the whole ride,' but we need your assistance right now. We thank you for saving us from the police, but do you know a place that we may safely reside in that is further away from the city?" Starfire said, really banking on the fact that she had worn the thief down into helping them.

Red X took his time to respond, really thinking things over. He finally gave his response, saying, "I'll show you a place, but you actually have to stay under the radar this time. No hero antics on the way there."

Starfire stifled a squeal as best as she could, and kept herself from sweeping the thief off his feet in a death hug.

Bumble Bee leaned over to Beast Boy and whispered, "She didn't hug him because he's not officially on the team yet." Beast Boy muffled a chuckle as he nodded his head.

"You don't get to stay too long so don't get too happy, and seriously, if you make a scene on the way there, I leave you." Red X said curtly.

He received nods from the rest of the team and they took off together. Kid Flash had to make another run to grab a few new articles of clothing for some teammates that were lost or ruined during the mad rush to control the fire. Now outfitted to blend in again, the group made it back onto another bus a few streets away from the fire, to carry them to their destination unknown by all except Red X. They rode the buses of Jump City until they were at the very outskirts of town. True to their word, the heroes kept from any displays of heroics the entire time they traveled. The group of heroes and criminals, now approached what looked like a very normal house.

"Is this it?" Beast Boy asked.

Red X shook his head, and threw up his hands. "I don't think you hero types realize that the other side isn't constantly doing evil! First you're shocked that I actually have a face, and now you don't think I just live in a normal house!"

Beast Boy was still looking at the house with an odd look, and opened his mouth to speak.

"No, the lease is not under the name Red X." The thief said before Beast Boy said a word.

The shape shifter closed his mouth, having nothing left to ask.

"Now everyone, get inside before we draw any uneeded attention." Red X said as he opened his front door.

The rest of the group rushed through the opened door and spilled out into their new host's living room. They looked around, taking in everything that the room contained. Inside was everything the average household contained, but everything, was of a higher quality. The couch had high quality leather, the carpet around them was very springy, the t.v. hanging on the wall was very large and thin, and speakers could be seen perched around the entire room. It was a nice house, but nothing on the level you would expect with an expert thief.

"Is it a bad thing that I'm kinda underwhelmed from what your house looks like." Kid Flash said as he looked about the room.

"Buying the most expensive things in life is a good way of getting yourself caught." Red X said as he walked about the room. "I've put money towards the things that count. The internet is faster here than in the pentagon, for one."

"Prove it." Bumble Bee challenged as she crossed her arms.

Red X reached over, and picked up a tablet off the arm of his couch and walked over to the group. He turned it on, and his eyes widened as he saw the number of news alerts on the lock screen.

"Would you look at that." He said with a crooked grin.

…

"3/4-inch socket wrench please." Cyborg said from underneath Jericho's car.

Jericho reached into a bag and pulled out the correct tool and placed it into Cyborg's outstretched hand.

Cyborg took it and after a few clicks, he said, "And I think that's it. She's all done and running like she never has before." He rolled out from underneath the car smiling, wiping his hands off on a rag. "All that's left is the test drive."

Jericho reached into his pocket, pulled out his keys, and help them up in front of Cyborg.

"Wait, you want me to drive?" he asked in disbelief.

Jericho nodded back with a huge smile. In under a minute, the car was already flying down the freeway.

"Booyah, she drives almost as nice as my baby back home, and that's saying something!" Cyborg yelled out.

Jericho smiled back at his friend as they drove. They had their windows rolled down and music blaring. Cyborg loved driving and would keep going for days, but he didn't want to undue all the fine tuning he had just done. That, and he wanted Jericho to experience the difference how much a little fiddling could help. He kept his test drive short, and headed back to Jericho's house. The entire trip , and even after getting out of the car once getting back, Cyborg had a smile on his face the whole time. Very few things brightened his day more than working on a beautiful car and then being able to drive it right after. The two now sat on the couch much more relaxed than before they went to work in the garage.

Cyborg turned to his mute friend and spoke, "I gotta thank you for letting me work on your car and drive it. She's a true masterpiece. I really needed that to get my mind off things."

Jericho smiled back, happy that he could help out his hurting friend. He went to go write something down on his notepad, but Cyborg stopped him. The mute hero looked up with a confused look on his face, not quite sure why his friend stopped him.

"I feel bad that you have to be writing down things all the time, so I think I've got an idea. In a nice house like this, you gotta have a nice computer here too, right?" Cyborg proposed to Jericho, and he nodded in response. "Let me hook up to it, and I think I can download sign language into my memory. I think I'll be able to match up the word I want to say with the sign that I have to do, and I think I'll be able to sign. I don't know if it'll work, and I'll probably be real slow, and-"

Jericho raised his hand to cut him off and held up a note that read, "I do, thank you for trying to learn. That means a lot."

Cyborg smiled back at him, as he led him to the computer. Cyborg hooked himself up, and using the combined power of his internal CPU and Jericho's computer, he was able to download pictures of every word in sign language he would need in just minutes. Cyborg unhooked himself from the computer and faced Jericho.

The mute hero signed, _Did it work? Can you tell what I'm signing?_

Cyborg looked down at his hands, and after a moment signed back, _Yes, it definitely worked. How've you been?_ only taking small pauses between words.

Jericho's eyes widened and his mouth hung open. It worked. His gaping mouth was soon replaced by the biggest smile that Cyborg had ever seen his friend give. He signed again, _I am doing this right, correct?_

Jericho recovered from his state of joyous shock and signed back at a slow pace that Cyborg could follow, _Yes, yes, you're doing it perfectly. That's amazing that you can do that already._

Cyborg was also thrilled that it had actually worked, and signed, _Wow, I didn't think it would work so well._

Jericho signed back, _I'm really happy that you had this idea. This is awesome._

Cyborg went to respond, but noticed there were tears in his friends even though he was smiling. He signed, _Hey, are you doing okay?_

Jericho took a moment before signing back, _I'm better than okay, it's just that I haven't had a conversation with someone in a long time._

That hit Cyborg so hard, he almost fell out of his chair. He had just truly comprehended how hard being mute made things for his friend. He felt so blessed that he was able to make his friend so happy with just a simple gesture. Sure, it wasn't simple for the average guy, but it was for him.

Cyborg signed back, _Happy to help and brighten your day then._

Jericho nodded as he signed, _More than you could ever know._

Back at Titan's Tower, things were finally looking up for the teen heroes. Since having Titans from across the world calling in at once to offer up help, they were scheduled to have eight more Titans in the tower by noon tomorrow. Two of the three Titans residing in Steel City were on their way; Argent and Hotspot needed a break from being around Wildabeast, so they opted to come to the city. The rest of the Titans that had called in, Herald, Bushido, Red Star, and Pantha, were all currently on their way to the city. After confirming that they were en route to Jump City, Raven suggested reaching out to the other Titans that were more disconnected with society. Robin called Thunder and Lightning, and just had to mentioned the word "trouble" and the two were rushing to Jump City as fast as they could. They informed Robin that things had been very boring, and were just itching to get in some action. They were also significantly closer than the rest of the Titans, so they would be arriving before everyone else. After Robin's productive call with the brothers, all that was left, was a call with Kole and Gnarrk. Robin sat in front of the giant screen with Raven beside him; the rest had gone off somewhere else in the tower.

The screen lit up with beautiful colors as Kole and Gnarrk answered from their hidden paradise. "Hey Robin, hey Raven! What's up you two?" Kole greeted with the bubbliest of voices.

Robin gave a very small smile, unable to hold it in seeing the happy girl on the other side of the screen. "Well, do you want the fake response of 'Nothing much' or do you want to get down to it?"

Kole looked at her friend, and Gnarrk weighed in on the subject with his usual deep, philosophical observations. "Gnarrk."

Kole nodded and said to Robin, "He's right, no point in putting it off. Hit me with news of what's going down in Jump City."

Robin rubbed his hands together before diving in. "To make it quick, there's a new mayor who made some rules that some of us didn't agree with. It caused a division that caused a small group of us to go rogue, and they're currently hiding somewhere in the city. We need some extra help to track them down, so we're bringing in Titans to Jump City."

Kole and Gnarrk both had been shocked by the news. Kole put a hand to her mouth and lrt out a huge gasp, while Gnarrk let out an incredulous, "Gnarrk?!"

Kole pulled herself together and responded, "That's awful! Is everyone okay? Who all went rogue?"

Raven was the one to answer. "Starfire went first, Beast Boy left soon after, then Bumble Bee, and Kid Flash was the last to join them. They're also with Red X and Control Freak as well."

"You mean they're siding with bad guys!?" Kole practically yelled out.

Robin nodded with a serious face. "Well yes, this all started with Starfire breaking Control Freak out of jail."

"Gnarrk?"

"Why would Starfire do that? She's incorruptible!" Kole said as she put her hands against the sides of her face.

"She thought that he was wrongfully incarcerated, but there is no evidence supporting his claims. She broke him out to save his life." Robin informed his fellow Titans.

"Wow! What did he do to get life in jail?" Kole asked.

Robin hesitated for a second to answer, so Raven did. "Murder, but it's not a life sentence either. One of the new rules they disagreed with was to reinstate the death penalty for costumed villains."

"Wait, they were gonna kill him? Don't we have a no killing rule or something?" Kole asked looking directly into Robin's eyes.

"Yes, we do, but the criminals go through the justice system, and they don't." Robin replied without hesitation. He had to defend his view point on the subject far more than he wish he had.

Kole looked at the screen for a moment with out speaking, before speaking. "I don't see that much of difference, but if you say so." She said with a shrug.

Gnarrk had been thinking for some time, and he leaned in closer to Kole and said, "Gnarrk."

Kole's eyes widened for a moment, and she said to the other two, "Oh my gosh! You said death penalty for villains in costumes! If the other Titans are breaking the law, doesn't that put them in that category?"

Robin and Raven's eyes fell toward the ground. That was the question that was always in the back of their minds, but each time it came up, they pushed it away in their minds. It made things a lot harder, when you think that your friends might be killed if you bring them in.

Robin looked back up and gave his reasoning. "The rule was for repeat offenders, and they all are very new to breaking the law, so they won't fall under the death penalty."

Kole nodded slowly as she pondered every detail of the situation. "And you need our help to bring them in?" She asked.

The other two Titans nodded their heads.

Kole and Gnarrk looked at each other, and then Kole said, "We don't want to take that chance. There's no way either of us could fight the other Titans with that in our heads. I'm sorry, but we're not coming to Jump City."

Robin pushed down his emotions for a moment and said, "If that's your decision, I can't change it. It's been nice seeing you two."

Kole and Gnarrk both gave a small smile and waved. "Nice seeing you too, but I wish it was on different terms." She said in a voice that didn't come close to matching the same verve she had at the beginning of the call.

The screen went black and Raven said in her usual monotone, "And there's the reality of the situation crashing down again."

Robin was dead silent again, and Raven knew what was going to come. Robin raised a fist to bring it slamming down upon the panel in front of him, but he only got so far as bring his fist up. He looked at his hand, and then over to Raven. She had a hand stretched out glowing with the same energy that covered Robin's raised fist.

Raven looked directly into her leader's eyes, and spoke with both concern and anger, "This is affecting all of us, Robin, but we all don't need to lose it like that. You need to be the most solid team member out of all of us."

Robin lowered his head, realizing that the empath was right. "Okay." Was all he responded.

Raven let his hand drop sensing that he was more calm now. "Now, what's the next step now that we have Titans on the way?"

Robin looked back at his teammate and said, "We need to give the mayor an update as soon as we can."

Once saying that, the screen flared back up with the very same person that was just mentioned. "There's been a new development in the story, so I need to hear the plan of how you are going to bring in the rogue Titans now." The mayor said from the screen. This time, before speaking, he took the time to look around and see who he was addressing.

Robin answered back with confidence, "We do have a plan, and there are currently eight more Titans on their way to Jump City as we speak, to help us carry it out."

The mayor's eyebrows rose. "Eight you say? That's a good amount. I hope that they do not act like the last Titan you brought into to Jump City." The mayor replied.

"There will not be a repeated incident like with Kid Flash, Mr. Mayor." Robin responded.

The mayor nodded back. "That is good to hear, now I'm a busy man so I need to get going. I'm going in front of the public to give a speech really soon. Alos, I know you all can be a little behind the times, so I would also check the news right now if I was you."

The screen went black again, and the two Titans looked at each other, wondering what he could mean. Robin reached over and turned on the t.v. to see the next big story of the day. The headline now: Olympians Heroes?

"Olympians? Who are the Olympians?" Raven asked aloud.

The two continued to watch, wondering who would come up on screen. To the surprise of both of them, it was the Titans that had quit the team. Video from multiple angles, showed them working together to clear out a building full of civilians, control a fire, and what looked like save lives. The show stopping clip was the water tower collapsing on Starfire and a civilian, and her rising from beneath it, with the tower in her hands.

After a moment of watching without speaking, Robin asked, "But why did the news channel come up with the name Olympians?"

The video cut to the crowds cheering on the heroes, and Beast Boy yelling out, "Titans? Nope, we're called the Olympians, and you can call us the good guys, because the only thing we've done 'wrong,' is stand up to a mayor that has made some bad calls!"

"Well I guess that's where they got the name." Robin said, having his question being answered.

He looked over at his friend and saw her staring at the screen with a peculiar look on her face. "What are you thinking, Raven?" he asked, wanting to know why she looked at the t.v. like that.

Raven shook her head to bring herself back to reality. "I was thinking about Beast Boy's words."

Robin nodded. Beast Boy brought up a point to the public that probably really changed the playing field. He called out the mayor directly, which might change some of the public's opinion on the subject.

Raven continued, "He had to have practiced those lines. That was too well done and intelligently conveyed to be a spur of the moment announcement."

Robin chuckled lightly. "I don't know; he has his moments of brilliance. I could say that was an on the spot thing."

"Not a chance." Raven said still looking at the screen.

Robin shrugged. "Really? He's proven that he can come through every once in a while. He put a team together to free some of us, from the Brotherhood of Evil."

Raven finally gave in. "Fine, maybe he could have, but he definitely didn't come up with the team name. That's too clever to be his idea."

"Too clever? I mean it's a good team name, but what makes it so clever?" Robin asked.

Raven arched an eyebrow. "Is that a gap in the Boy Wonder's knowledge? You don't know your Greek Mythology?"

Robin rubbed the back of his head and looked a way. "Well, that was a subject that Batman didn't cover in depth."

Raven gave a small smirk and said, "I'll enlighten you then. The world was ruled by Titans in Greek Mythology, but one of the sons, Zeus, over through them with the help of his siblings, and they were said to reside on Mount Olympus after doing so. You could say that the Olympians beat the Titans."

"You're right. That is too clever for Beast Boy, but who did come up with it then?" Robin admitted.

"That's a good question." Raven said back.

"What's a good question?" Speedy asked as he walked in to the room.

The two looked up at the archer, and Robin said. "The Titans that left the team, now have a name apparently. They saved a crowd of people, and the public doesn't know what to think of them. We were wondering who came up with the name."

Speedy was watching the t.v. as Robin was talking. "It's good to see that they haven't completely turned evil yet." He said as he watched. "What's the team name?"

"The Olympians." Raven filled in.

Speedy nodded back. "Good ring to it."

Aqualad, Mas, y Menos walked in after, and Aqualad said, "Did you guys see that our friends made the news again?" Aqualad saw that the t.v. was currently tuned in to the news and added, "That would be a yes."

The three Titans East members joined the others in front of the t.v.

"The mayor's going to be address the public here soon, so let's wait and hear it." Robin said.

The news played for a few minutes more, as the casters broke down the facts and tried to figure out what was going on. Soon after the breaking news transition flash across the screen, and they were informed that the mayor was going to speak about this new group of Titans. After a few more minutes, they cut to a podium where the mayor now stood.

He looked down at the papers in front of them and began, "My fellow citizens of Jump City…"

[End Chapter]

How'd I do on this one? I hope you guys enjoyed it! Now things are really changing. Titans flooding in to the city, Red X has returned, public view of the Olympians going this way and that, the struggle of not knowing if Beast Boy made up his spiel on the spot or practiced it! Okay maybe that last one isn't a big one...

A shout out is in order. Thanks to JP-Ryder for giving me the idea of having some Titans not wanting to come down to Jump City. I think that adds some depth.

And my response to all of you beautiful human's reviews:

Allen Blaster, not necessarily and if you like seeing Robin lose it, I think I might have to put one more in.

TheUltimateStar, I can't have everything running smoothly for our characters! It's amazing that you are such a fan of this story!

JP-Ryder, thank you, and you were 100% correct!

Apologetic, I wanted it to seem like everything wasn't look quite right with the mayor, but if I'm making things incredibly illegal and terrible, that's what I'm going for. I really have no idea how the due process works, so I could use some pointers if you do.

Dysfunctional-Nom-De-Plume, the name was a great, and I'm happy you feel good about getting chosen! You gave some more good idea's in that review as well, thanks!

To the guest reviews, first one, not quite sure what you mean, and the second, thank you that you liking the story!That's all Ax4 haves for you today.

Hopefully, once again this chapter was Above Average in your book!


	14. Chapter 14

"My fellow citizens of Jump City," The mayor said from behind his podium, "It has come to light that certain heroes of our city have thought themselves to be above the law, and have acted according to those incorrect assumptions. Earlier today, it was broadcasted to the entire city that this team of superheroes took down a group of Jump City Police officers once exiting a power facility. Along side them were the two criminals Control Freak and Red X during this fight, so it is safe to assume that these heroes that we once thought to be on our side, are not anymore. As a cause for such a betrayal, one can only presume that it has revolved around the escape of Control Freak."

The mayor took a long pause as he stared at his audience and they all stared back. "After we see these 'heroes' true colors, it is broadcasted that they saved a building full of innocents from a tanker that was primed to explode. Now, we as a city are caught doubting ourselves of these self named 'Olympians' intentions. Are they good, or are they bad? My fellow citizens, I would like to inform you that this newest act of heroism is not what it seems. This tanker that crashed into the building had started a fire, that seemed like it threatened the integrity of the container, but that is not the case. The tanker full of gasoline could not have been heated to a point of collapse sitting outside in the open, with flames only near it. I believe that we have not witnessed an act of heroism, but a calculated move to curry favor."

"That was a little bit of a jump right there." Raven muttered.

"Let me explain further." The mayor said from the screen as if responding to Raven's skepticism. "The tanker driver, when interviewed said that his truck, which was made in 2015, had suddenly lost control and careened into the building very suddenly. This seems out of place for such a new vehicle. Along side that, when asked, the bystanders said that these so called Olympians were on the scene almost instantaneously. Further more, the rogue hero team member, Beast Boy, push a water tower over, causing not only needless property damage. but this water tower later almost fell on a civilian, who was saved by none other than Starfire. Why was it Starfire that saved the man instead of Kid Flash, who is obviously better suited for saving the man? This is because it looked much better on camera and was entirely planned out by these Olympians. The Olympians caused the damage and saved the civilians from what they had done, just to be in the spotlight to clear their names."

Robin looked at Raven, with the story sounding a little less far fetched now.

"Lastly, why did they suddenly disappear in a cloud of smoke? The team disappeared when first responders were just minutes away from the fire. Once disappearing, gas canisters with red x's on them were found to be the cause of the smoke, which can only belong to one villain. It is hard to believe this to be anything other than an organized plan to curry favor, because they came to save the day, said what they needed to to be seen as good, and disappeared before the police and fire team were there. This can all be a coincidence, but I find that hard to believe."

The Titans in the room began to talk amoung themselves, no longer listening to the mayor talk.

"He makes some good points." Speedy said after thinking over what the mayor had just spoken to the entire city.

Aqualad nodded and agreed, saying, "That does make a lot of sense what he was just saying; it's not too far of a stretch."

"No, it is. There's no way that they would do something like that." Raven said with confidence.

"¿Por qué?" Menos asked.

Raven looked at them all in the eye and said, "Do you really believe Starfire would go along with that? Tricking the entire city isn't something she would ever do."

Robin spoke up without looking at Raven, "I would have put breaking villains out of prison on that list of things she would never do as well."

That was a solid point, but it didn't sway Raven. "Yes, but she still brought Control Freak to the tower after she did that, so she still wasn't trying to deceive anyone."

"Hold on, weren't we just debating if Beast Boy had his lines practiced before hand too? That goes with the whole planned heroics thing." Speedy said back.

Raven paused again, but was still sure that her friends would never do something like that. In the silence of the moment, the Titan's became aware of the mayor's speech again.

"Further more, we will not back away from these super humans, but instead press even harder against them. The police have been able to crack down and catch more villains here in Jump City. Professor Chang, the one who supplied the Olympians with plans about their break in to the power plant, has been caught, tried, and sentenced to death. Another villain that plagued our city, Johnny Rancid, has been brought in as well, and has been sentenced to death. Where ever these Olympians are, the ground is shrinking beneath them, and we will find them."

On the very outskirts of town, the Olympians shouted their disagreement.

"Dude! Who does this guy think he is?!" Beast Boy yelled at the t.v. "He says we do everthing as a show, and then announces that he's killed more bad guys! Why are people okay with this?!"

"This is insane! The guy's a total nut job!" Bumble Bee added loudly.

"I'm actually a little flattered that he thinks we can pull off a plan like that." Kid Flash added nonchalantly.

"Good to know, Kid." Red X said with words dripping in sarcasm.

"Friends, we must not let the words of the mayor reconfigure, in a distasteful way, our heads." Starfire said trying to keep her teammates in check.

Everyone became quiet. Not because Starfire made a good point, but because they were trying to decipher what she was saying.

After a few moments, Kid Flash snapped his fingers and said, "Mess with our heads!"

Starfire gave a big smile and said, "Exactly!"

Beast Boy nodded. "Yah, he's messin' with us, and tryin' to make it still look like we're the bad guys, but we know he's the bad guy."

"So what's the plan?" Kid Flash asked, now ready for some more action.

"We must sleep, because we have had a most strenuous day, and we will face our problems in the morning." Starfire announced

Everyone was caught off guard by the extreme passive suggestion. "What do you mean 'goin' to sleep'? With what just happened I think I'm gonna be a little to worked up to fall-" Bumble Bee said, but couldn't finish because of the giant yawn that escaped out of her mouth. "Okay maybe I am bit wiped." She conceded.

The rogue team began to discover their own weariness, and began to yawn themselves. Today had been very eventful and they were all very tired. All protests to Starfire's suggestion died before they even came out of their mouths. Red X took the lead in herding the rest into beds.

He turned off the t.v. and said to the team, "Spare rooms are this way, but someone's gonna have to sleep in the couch in here."

There was a quick argument between the rest of the team that resulted with Beast Boy getting stuck with the couch. With how tired he was, it almost didn't matter, but he still let out a frustrated final comment.

"Why do you even have enough beds for four other people?" He asked, crossing his arms.

"Because I hold meetings for all super villains of Jump City here." He Red X responded, drawing a wide eyed look from Beast Boy. "Or maybe I just like company." He finished up with as he left the room, leaving Beast Boy to wonder what the real reason was.

The expert thief led the rest of the team to spare rooms, dropping Control Freak and Kid Flash, in one room, Bumble Bee in another, and Starfire in the last. He decided to make a stop in his kitchen for a small snack and a glass of water before heading to bed himself. Walking back to the kitchen, he saw that Beast Boy was already passed out on the couch with out need of a blanket. He made it to his fridge, opened the door, pulled out a cheese stick, and closed it, only to find Starfire standing right where the open door rested when open.

The sudden appearance of the alien caused Red X to jump slightly and yell out, "Jesus! Where'd you come from?"

Starfire didn't expect such an out burst, but still responded, "I come from the planet Tamaran in the Vegan system."

"That's not what I meant at all. It's an expressi-you know what, never mind. Why are you in the kitchen?" Red X chose to say back.

Starfire hesitated to answer the question and instead looked down at the food that her teammate was holding. "What is this food that you possess in your hand? Is there more?"

Red X looked down at what he was hlding and replied after a skeptical look at the girl across from him. "It's string cheese. Are you hungry?"

Starfire nodded, and Red X turned back around to get a second cheese stick from the fridge. He gave it to the alien, and she opened it.

Starfire looked at the food in front of her and asked inquisitively to boy across from her, "Why is it called 'string cheese' when there is no string in this bar of cheese?"

Red X chuckled and opened his own in response. He peeled a piece from the top of it and pulled down revealing why the food was indeed named string cheese. Starfire's look of amazement puzzled the thief as he watched as she did the same with her own.

"I guess you guys don't eat these back at your place." He said.

Starfire responded back in between mouthfuls of cheese. "We do not have these most fantastic cheese stings in our tower. This is a most wondrous snack that you have, Red X!"

"Yah, you can thank Kraft, not me for the idea." He responded back as he worked on his own cheese stick. He watched the Tamaraean as she made her own snack quickly disappear, but after she had done so, she still looked at the expert thief across from her with a perplexed look. He noticed and said, "You didn't come in here for a snack, did you?"

Starfire looked away before conceding, "No it is not, Red X. I actually have questions for you that I was hoping you could answer."

Red X shrugged. "Okay, shoot."

Starfire still hesitated before continuing on. "After you first took us from the site of the burning building, I had done the confusing of you with Robin." She now looked back at the boy across from her and asked. "You said that you were almost brothers, why is that?"

Red X had been hoping that none of the other heroes, or single villain, on the team would have mentioned it. He hadn't meant to bring up that fact at all, but in the moment, the comment slipped out. "It's a long story, but I'll say that we both trained by Batman."

His answer only intrigued Starfire even more. "You have also been trained by the Batman? Were you his 'side-kick' as well?" She said, making sure to use side-kick correctly.

Red X really did not want to talk about it anymore. "Look, if I answer this, no more questions. Okay?"

Starfire nodded back enthusiastically.

"Yes. Robin hasn't been Batman's side-kick in years, so he got another Robin that happened to be me. Something bad happened, which I _will_ not talk about, so I'm not anymore. Does that cover everything?" Red X said with finality.

Starfire nodded, but still had a confused look on her face.

Red X gave a heavy sigh and asked, "What?"

"You were Robin as well? I cannot call both you and Robin, Robin." Starfire said, voicing her confusion.

"So you just call me Red X then. Woo-hoo, problem solved." Red X said with false enthusiasm.

Starfire pressed on, not heeding Red X's suggestion. "What is your real name?"

Red X became defensive, and crossed his arms. "Why do you need to know? You call the rest of your teammates by their superhero names: Cyborg, Beast Boy, Raven, and so on."

"In truth, Raven's real name is Raven." Starfire pointed out.

Red X cocked his head to the side and arched a brow. "Really? Huh. You know everyone's name?"

Starfire nodded her head. "It is easier to use my friend's 'superhero' names all of the time, so I may not accidently use their real names in the public." After a brief pause she added, "And friend Beast Boy is most embarrassed by his name."

Piquing his interest, Red X asked, "Beast Boy has an embarrassing name? What is it?"

Starfire was hesitant to reveal her friends name, but she also saw an opportunity. "I will reveal his name to you, if you reveal your name to me.

Red X shook his head, not seeing it as an equal trade, and began to walk out of the kitchen. Right before he exited he stopped, and turned around. "It's gonna bug me for the rest of my life to not know. Fine, I'll tell you my name. What's Beast Boy's"

"Garfield."

Red X chuckled to himself. "Garfield? That's unfortunate. Was he born in the sixties or something? (Ha!)" He turned back around and walked out the kitchen door before peaking his head back in. "And the name's Jason."

Red X pulled his head back and walked off to his room, now equally tired as the rest of his teammates.

Starfire stood in the kitchen for a moment more, and whispered to herself, "Thank you for telling me this, friend Jason." Starfire then headed off to her room, content with all she had learned about Red X and string cheese, and fell asleep almost immediately.

The next morning, it was almost as busy at Titan's Tower as the day after they defeated the Brotherhood of evil, and every Titan and honorary Titan had to stay in the tower for a day. The day started with Thunder and Lightning banging at the door at 4:30 in the morning. They managed to get there before Robin had risen, which was a first time achievement for any visiting hero, so Robin was roused from his bed and came to let the two heroes in. The new, spirited energies in the house were enough to rattle Raven from her sleep as well, and she spent the next hour staring at her ceiling with a sour expression. Now completely sure that she was not going back to bed for the day, she rose and got ready for the day. Once exiting her own room, she prepared herself to see the state of the living room, seeing how destructive the two brothers seemed to be during every past encounter. Raven walked into the main room already tensed, but was surprised to find the room in pristine condition. Looking around the room, she found that the brothers were just sitting quietly on the couch. Come to think of it, she hadn't felt excitement from the two of them in a while, but was too busy getting ready to really pay attention to it. In fact, she could feel that there was some inner trouble that the two were sifting through.

Raven approached the two on the couch, but neither acknowledged her, so she took the initiative to start the conversation. "Um, hey Thunder and Lightning."

Slowly, the other two looked up and gave simple waves in response, a very different reaction than the empath expected.

"Everything okay?" she asked, knowing very well what the answer would be.

Lightning was the first to speak up. "In truthfulness, pale one, all is not well for my brother and I."

Raven cringed slightly at the name given to her, but she thought that correcting him would have been in poor sport. "Uh, care to share?" she asked, feeling the sadness emanating from the two.

Lightning responded again but with much less energy than his usual bright demeanor, saying, "We rushed to aid our fellow Titans when the spikey-haired one announced that there was trouble in your city, but we came without knowing the reason of your distress. We have been informed what is the cause and we are troubled by the news we have been given."

Raven nodded, knowing that it wasn't good news to hear what the situation was. "We've all had a lot of trouble handling what's been going on."

Silence filled the room, as no one was quite sure what else to say. Eventually Thunder spoke aloud, not knowing who exactly he was speaking to. "I am conflicted because the green one was the one to point out the error of our ways. If he is the one to be making the erorrs, how will we know what is good and what is bad?"

 _Now that is a question._ Raven thought to herself before speaking aloud. "That's exactly it. Seeing what's good and bad is difficult right now with all that's happened."

Thunder only nodded back slowly. Lightning looked at his brother and gave himself a slight shake before putting an arm around his shoulder.

"There will be time for disheartened talk later, so we do not have to right now. Let us go do something fun." Lightning said with a little more energy that he had been lacking.

Thunder looked back at his brother, and was able to give a slight smile. Raven knew what their definition of fun was, but could not shoot them down again so she only gave a slight suggestion.

"It may be a good idea, to have some fun outside." She monotoned, hoping the two would follow her words.

The brothers gave an understanding nod and took off to exit the tower as fast as they could. Raven was glad that the two had both improved moods, and agreed to keep it outside. She now thought she could enjoy some peace and quiet for a while, but was sorely mistaken. Robin came through into the main room with both Argent and Hotspot, and from then on until 9:00 there was a steady stream of Titans coming into the tower. Along with the heroes, came their emotions that filled the entire tower, and it was starting to get the the resident empath. The very loud emotions from those like Hotspot and Pantha were able to make up for the calmer, more steadfast heroes such as Red Star and Herald in creating a constant racket in Raven's head. Had it been for a less dire reason for the teams gathering, there would have been little problem, but with how it was, the empath realized that she was going to need a breather from the rest of her teammates.

Hatching a plan, she yelled out in a loud voice she had hardly ever used, "Quiet! I need all of your attention!"

The rest of the Titans quickly complied, hearing the typically quiet Titan yell.

Raven continued, "There's a lot of people here, so are going to be needing some more food. I'm going to go grocery shopping so I'm going to need all of you to tell me what you want." She immediately and loudly corrected herself when everyone began to talk at once. "Actually just send it to my communicator!"

Raven sunk through the floor and arose back from the ground in an alley next to the closest grocery store to Titan's Tower. As she walked in through the door, her communicator began to buzz with the multitude of food requests pouring in. She took it out, and immediately began to find every food requested to her by her teammates. She was able to find everything fairly easily, and had found every edible item requested to her, and was now reading over the list to make sure that everything was accounted for. After reading it through for the third, she still found herself having the feeling that something was missing. After reading it through for the fourth time, Raven realized that the feeling came from the fact that three of her past teammates were not in the group of people that sent her requests for food. She thought back to her conversation with Cyborg about having bought tofu, just in case, and before she knew it, a portion of tofu, a bottle of mustard, and a rack of ribs were added into her cart. Now sure that everything wanted had been added to her cart, she went off to the check out lines to buy the food.

With few other shoppers in the store, she was able to begin unloading her purchases immediately. The cashier was busy ringing up the food to realize who exactly was buying them and didn't look up until he was finished.

"Alright, your total is-oh my god! You're Raven!" He said in a shocked voice.

Raven had hoped that she would have made it through the entire trip without having to deal with over excited civilians, but now saw that that hope was now dead. "Yes, very astute of you for finding that one out." She said sarcastically, with politeness not in the forefront of her mind.

"I just didn't expect to see you here doing something… so normal." The cashier said.

"Yes, we do indeed eat food that we buy from grocery stores." Raven monotoned.

The cashier kept going with it. "I mean, that makes sense, but it's not something I picture you guys doing. Do you guys budget for it? Do you each pay for your own food individually?"

Quickly tiring of the conversation, Raven gave a brusque reply of, "Don't pay attention to it. You pay for it with your taxes."

The cashier was finally picking up on the hometown hero's distaste of the subject, and just finished the rest of the transaction, and sent Raven on her way. The empath walked out of the store, and disappeared into the ground once more, only to reappear again in her kitchen, with the shopping cart filled with bags. Using her powers to remove the bags from the cart, she was able to empty the cart quickly and return it back to the store parking lot. With the shopping cart back in its rightful place, Raven was able to return back to begin putting the food in its rightful place, but she was pleasantly surprised to find Argent and Pantha already at work doing so. Raven joined the other two heroines after a small thank you for their help.

"It's nothin', thought you could use a little bi' of help, love." Argent said with a wink.

"Indeed, my friend, Pantha feels sorry for you for having to live with all these men for such a long time." The feline hero added.

Raven gave a short chuckle and responded, "It's been hard to breathe with all the testosterone in the air."

The comment drew laughter from both of her friends and teammates as they continued to finish their work. Speedy soon walked into the kitchen once there was only one bag left to unpack, and he made his way over to finish the job.

"Don't want to reinforce any gender stereotypes now. I got this one!" He announced with a smile, and only receiving eye rolls from the rest of the group.

"Wow. Your contribution has been monumental to the feminine movement." Raven replied without emotion.

"I know right? You ladies can thank me by any means you deem necessary." The archer replied while striking a masculine pose.

"An' now you're back to square one." Argent replied.

Pantha gave a hearty laugh and replied, "Oh, Pantha will thank you… With the Tongan death grip!"

Speedy wasn't up to date with wrestling terms, but he could tell that that definitely did not sound fun from just the title. "Uh, actually, I think I need to go help Bushido, um, get unpacked, or something, so I-I gotta go." He said before taking off out of the room, leaving the three ladies to laugh.

"The bugger didn' even unload the bag!" Argent said as she walked over to the last bag. Taking out the contents, she looked at Raven with an arched brow. "Tofu? Who's the vegetarian on the team?"

Raven paused for a moment, not really wanting to give her reasons as to why she had purchased that particular item. Not wanting to risk making it worse with a lie, she came forward with the truth. "Beast Boy. I bought it just in case, you know, he and the others came back… I got the idea from Cyborg."

"That's really kind of you, actually." Argent said with a warm smile, as she replaced the old, untouched tofu, with the new.

Pantha threw an arm around Raven, to her dislike, and announced, "Yes, you are a good teammate to have at my back!"

Raven was happy with her teammates response, and realized she was just happy to have friends around. She had been surrounded by friends the entire time, but with how stressful things had been, it made it easier for her to forget that. With the food now in it's right place, the girls moved over to the couch to relax, and make small talk. They each talked about crime in their specific area, any recent, intersting fights, and Pantha's still undefeated wrestling record.

"Oh, you should have seen the last wrestler to try to take the belt from Pantha! He ended up being thrown into the crowd in the first thirty seconds, and was unable to get back into the ring before falling over in a daze!"

"Well done, Pantha. I see you've been keeping in peak fighting shape." Robin said from behind the girls. He had entered so quietly, and the others had been absorbed in the story that they didn't notice his entry into the room.

"Indeed! Pantha is indestructible!" Argent said in her best Pantha voice as she stood flexing her biceps, drawing a small chuckle from Robin.

After Robin entered, the rest of the male Titans came in soon after, and the three ladies noticed Speedy stay a comfortable distance away from the three of them.

Once everyone settled down, Robin began to address his fellow teammates. "Good to see that everyone made it to Jump City safely, and I wish we could just relax and hang out, but we still have business to get done. Now, I've been trying to come up with a plan for some time, and I think I have one that will work, but I would rather not use it."

Over the next five minutes, Robin gave a brief description of his plan, but before he could even open the floor for questions, Titans began giving feedback in a way that could have been more polite.

"You can't be serious about this plan!"

"That would be a new low for us."

"That seems pretty messed up to me."

"That does not sound good, but it does sound necessary."

"There have been worse plans."

"It will at least get the job done."

Robin raised his hands and spoke out, "I told you that I would rather not use it, but I haven't been able to think of anything else that will work as well as this. I told this plan first, so we can all spend the time to think of something else in the meant time."

"Are you sure it's not just a plan that will make sure this is all finished up before Batman can get involved?" Raven asked with her arms crossed.

"This isn't about some feud between Batman and I. Bringing in other superheroes could just escalate the problem. Ever think how much harder it would be if Wonder Woman or a Green Lantern decided to help out the others? It could cause a huge amount of superheroes to all come to Jump City, leaving the rest of the world unprotected and could end up hurting a lot of people outside Jump City." Robin quickly explained back.

No one had anything else to say, so Robin decided to press further. "Looking at another angle, ending this… whatever we're going through right now, needs to be a priority because we've been lucky that no one has taken advantage of the situation and put some plan into action while we're all down. The longer we wait, the higher the chance of someone like Slade or even worse coming to this city and doing as they please."

Raven spoke after a small silence. "You're right. I shouldn't have said that, and I'm sorry. It's a solid plan, but I think that you're also right in taking the time to think up alternatives."

The Titans quickly began to brainstorm any and all ideas that could bring in the Olympians. Starting at first to all give ideas in a single, large group, but they slowly began to split into smaller groups to come up with ideas idividually.

As the Titans planned to take down the Olympians, Cyborg and Jericho were comfortably resting in the latter's home, engrossed in a conversation of signing to each other.

 _So you're saying that Batman could take Superman in a fight?_ Cyborg signed to Jericho, who gave a quick yes in reply.

 _Okay, yah I guess the guy probably has some plan buried somewhere in the floor of the Batcave to take down Supes or something._ Cyborg agreed.

 _The real problem for Batman would be Wonder Woman. She's basically as strong as Superman, but she doesn't have a weakness. I think she would destroy Batman._ Jericho signed back.

Cyborg nodded in approval. _Yah, I think you're right on that. It's a good thing they aren't having to fight right now though._

Jericho nodded back again with a smile, but the conversation reminded the half machine that there were currently heroes fighting in their own city, that they knew personally. Jericho saw the turn in emotions on his friends face, and could guess at the reason. Jericho thought of a way to change the subject and snapped his fingers at the generation of idea and to regain his friend's attention. Jericho didn't necessarily want to talk about the new subject, but he knew he had to at some point in time.

 _You asked about who I was yesterday, and I said that it was for another time, but I think now is a good time as ever._ Jericho signed.

Cyborg only nodded back, ready to hear (or see) every word his friend was about to tell him.

Jericho began. _Well to tell my own story, I have to start with my parents._ The mute boy paused, not sure how else to move forward in the story. _Well, I said I had a rich dad, and that's true, but he didn't make his money in the most righteous of ways._

Jericho paused again, knowing he was just putting off the inevitable. Fed up with how he was acting, he decided to just go ahead and sign the truth to Cyborg.

 _My father is Slade._

[End Chapter]

*Deep sigh full of copious amounts of regret*

Here it is my readers: my next chapter that I am so terribly sorry for getting to you late. Took an exact two weeks to get this chapter out, which I know was way too late. From the very bottom of my heart, I, Ax4, apologize for having you guys wait more than twice as long as usual. In my defense, finals week was two weeks ago, and I left for camping immediately after that, so I was only able to begin writing this chapter late Tuesday night. Technically, I've only been writing this chapter for six days, but still, NO EXCUSES! I thought I'd just post it right now in the dead of night, than wait till morning, because I've kept you all waiting long enough.

Now, how'd you like it? I hope it's on par with the rest of my work. The mayor's accusations? Starfire learning a little bit about Red X? A hero filled tower? Jericho's huge (very much cannon) announcement? I hope it was all good!

About Robin's plan, I know exactly where I'm taking this part of the story, and I think you're really gonna like it, but if you just have the most amazing, borderline between bad and good plan in your head that you think would just be absolutely perfect for the story, who am I to not want to hear it?

Now, let me answer your thoughts…

FanficFan920, thank you, but I don't know the character Jesse Quick well enough to accurately portray her in writing correctly, so I don't think I will be adding her in. Sorry!

THeUltimateStar, I really liked Civil War! Thank you for thinking that the adding that was a good idea, and just thank you for the kind words in general.

Welovenails, thank you so much, but… sorry for breaking that regular update streak! Haha I thought it was pretty ironic! Also, I'd like to know the story behind the name. When I first read it, I read it as wolverine nails, but then I realized that was wrong, but we love nails, didn't make much more sense than when I first read it. Is it a band name, or just acknowledging the fact that nails are a really integral invention for making society work?

JP-Ryder, I hope you liked what he had to say! Thank you, and maybe they will…

Apologetic, well… If I'm too late, I hope the mistakes aren't so glaring that there are taking away from the story. I will definitely be keeping all of that information in the back of my mind for later though.

Jovan2013, I think you just put my exact thought process for how I put each hero on each side in that review! Seriously, that's almost exactly what I was thinking!

vanessa isaacs, your wish is my command.

Guest reviewers, glad I'm making you think about sides, yup, thank you, "friendship fluff to roll around in" is a beautiful string of words, and do you really want to know if you called the plot correctly and have part of it spoiled, or just jeep reading to find out?

Whew, thank you all for all the reviews!

I hope that the lateness has not affected what you think about this chapter. Was it Above Average in your book?


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